Hopeful pot retailers ahead of the rules

By Collin Gallant on June 2, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

Prospective pot retailers are signing conditional leases and listing addresses in Medicine Hat on provincial applications, even though local land-use rules for selling marijuana are at least six weeks away.

That includes three potential sites in a two-block radius downtown, the News has learned, others in major and neighbourhood commercial strip malls and light industrial areas.

Early this year the province set minimum standards for setbacks and operations of the new retail sector, then began accepting applications to process after changes to federal laws expected this summer decriminalize the narcotic.

However, local governments have the authority to set their own restriction over and above the provincial standards.

Local planners have been drawing up potential rules for months, and in mid-June could make their recommendations known. But officials say that likely hasn’t dampened interest in the industry.

Kent Snyder, the city’s general manager of planning and development services, said a very high interest level exists despite a lack of clarity about local rules that planners have been rushing to complete.

“We have regularly received numerous inquiries from potential business owners and landlords … at least three to five per week since the spring,” he told the News on Friday. “There has been quite a lot of interest.”

Provincial rules state that a store can’t be located within 100 metres of a provincial health-care facility, school or land designated for future school construction.

They must also comply with local business licensing regulations, zoning requirements and land-use restrictions, but those won’t in place in Medicine Hat until mid-July at the earliest.

Members of the municipal planning commission remarked on the seemingly round-about process when it discussed timetables for legislation this spring.

Snyder said the department plans to introduce proposed local regulations at the planning commission on June 13.

That would mean the proposed bylaw changes could be introduced at city council on June 18. A public hearing and potential adoption of the rules would happen July 16.

A list of applications for comment on the Alberta gaming and Liquor Commission website includes nine addresses in Medicine Hat.

They include storefronts on Dunmore Road, Northlands Pointe commercial development, Box Springs Business Park, the southern reaches of South Railway Street and also Gershaw Drive.

A vacant bay at a stripmall in South Ridge is three doors down from a liquor store and has a parking lot that abuts multi-family housing.

Near downtown, three applications have addresses within two blocks of each other, including two on the 200 and 300 blocks of South Railway Street, and another on the 600 block of Third Street.

A six-week survey by the city found that while most Hatters are mainly split on the move to legalize the drug, a majority supported the move. It also found a wide array of opinion on how retailing should be regulated.

About half the 7,100 respondents said no minimum distance between stores should be required, though 40 per cent felt stores should be at least a half km apart.

Most respondents said large commercial areas were the preferred location, followed by no preference.

Two thirds of respondents said they had significant concerns with marijuana outlets setting up near places where children congregate, such as parks, schools and playgrounds. They felt a provincial standard of at least 100-metre separation should be doubled to 200.

Local applications listed as open for comment on the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission website:

* Company name, proposed location

Greenlight Apothecary, 2882 Box Springs Blvd.

Source Dispensary, 1027 S Railway St.

Tokyo Smoke, 642 Fourth St. SW

Tweed, 2420 Division Ave. NW

Westside Weed, 914 S Railway St.

Hat Cannabis, Inc., 303 Southridge Dr.

Hemp Town Rock, 214 S Railway St.

Clarity Cannabis, 643 Third St. SE

Spiritleaf (Medicine Hat), 3215 Dunmore Rd.

33
-32

Comments are closed.