Cannabis ordinance up for final vote at South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting

The South Lake Tahoe City Council will be continuing their July 17 discussion and voting on the new cannabis ordinance at their next meeting on Tuesday, August 21.

If approved, the new ordinance will replace the existing medical marijuana ordinance.

To enter the cannabis industry in South Lake Tahoe, businesses will have to obtain a Use Permit, a Development Agreement and a Public Safety License.

No more than two retailers, two microbusinesses and two cultivators. No person can own more than one cannabis business, and no more than one cannabis business can exist on a lot or parcel.

When approved, the licensees must also operate their business where the land use will be consistent with the applicable area plan, plan area statement, and/or community plan for such location.

Retailers and their delivery service can only operate where zoned "food and beverage retail sales" and "general merchandise stores."

The two microbusiness licenses can operate where the types of licenses they are going to operate with. They can have three of the four types of licenses: retail, distributor, manufacturer or cultivator. Distributors can be in areas zoned "wholesale and distribution." Manufacturers can be placed where "food and kindred products," or "small scale manufacturing" are allowed.

Cultivators can be where parcels fall into the areas marked "nursery."

Testing labs can be in areas zoned "industrial services."

Cannabis Business may not operate on a parcel or lot located within 1,000 feet of a School, or 600 feet of a Youth Center, or 600 feet of a Day Care Center, or 150 feet of any Park, any religious institution, any residential or outpatient drug or alcohol treatment facility licensed by the State Department of Health Care
Services, or hospital, that is in existence at the time the Cannabis Use Permit is issued.

They also will not be allowed in residential neighborhoods.

At this time, Tahoe Wellness Cooperative, the lone medical marijuana dispensary in town, performs several of the services that will be allowed under the new ordinance, more than will be allowed for any one business and in locations other than where his building is located. Based on the zoning maps in this story, apparently Tahoe Wellness could do retail sales and cultivation only. They also allow on-site consumption, something set to be banned in the new ordinance. Owner Cody Bass was at the last council meeting to discuss why the zoning maps exclude Tahoe Wellness Collective.

The Council meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 21 at the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Also on the agenda is a discussion of the development agreement guidelines and South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief will present the City's Fire Department Standard of Cover.