South Lake Tahoe cannabis sales could be delayed with possible referendum

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - September 21, 2018 is the date the City of South Lake Tahoe will start accepting development agreements for the six cannabis licenses up for grabs after City Council approved a cannabis ordinance on August 21, 2018.

That is, unless a group spearheaded by Cody Bass of Tahoe Wellness Cooperative and his attorney James Anthony gets enough signatures to stop the process.

Bass has 30 days from the ordinance's approval date to officially protest its adoption. To do this he must gather signatures from 10 percent of the registered voters (of voters registered on the day submitted which would be approximately 1,012 if today) in South Lake Tahoe and turn them into to El Dorado County Elections for verification. He told South Tahoe Now he wants to submit them by September 19.

For over ten years Bass has owned and operated Tahoe Wellness Cooperative, South Lake Tahoe's only medical cannabis dispensary for many of those years. He is grandfathered in to continue the same operations, but Bass wants to become an adult-use cannabis dispensary and continue providing all types of service he offers. There is no adult-use license available for everything done Tahoe Wellness Cooperative including on-site consumption, retail sales, cultivation and extraction.

There will be two licenses issued for microbusinesses when the ordinance goes into effect, but on-site consumption will not be allowed. A microbusiness can be three of the five uses approved: cultivation, retail, extraction, distribution and delivery. The City Council voted against having on-site consumption at this time.

Bass said his sales are down at least 70 percent since Nevada started selling adult-use cannabis in 2017. When other adult-use businesses open up in South Lake Tahoe, Bass said he could see that number grow closer to 100 percent.

Anthony hired people to gather signatures at South Lake Tahoe grocery stores and post offices to attempt to get the number needed by the 19th.

There is some misinformation being given out by these signature gatherers. South Tahoe Now was at Grocery Outlet on September 13 and was told by the gentleman with the clipboard that the City is trying to shut down Tahoe Wellness and keep people from their medicine, and that locals deserve to have the six licenses but instead big businesses from the outside will be getting them.

Bass said the information the gatherers are telling residents isn't wrong.

"The licenses will go to the biggest companies and there are organized efforts by big business," said Bass.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department has received complaints about the signature gatherers giving out false information in an effort to mislead the public. There are laws concerning this act but they have not found any crimes being committed.

Cody Bass is allowed to complete a development agreement and apply to have one of the six allowed adult-use licenses, but if he wants a microbusiness he'd have to move into another location as his newly purchased Bijou area location cannot house anything but retail sales and cultivation.

The locations of adult-use cannabis businesses have to fall into zoning maps the City's Development Services department created based on TRPA allowable uses. Bass said he wants to apply for small scale manufacturing to continue using 100 percent of the cannabis plant as he does now, but that is only allowed along Highway 50 west of Trout Creek, at the "Y", in the industrial area at the Y, near the airport and in the Tourist Core.

"I feel this is a personal attack against me," said Bass. "If I stay in my existing use I cannot expand or get construction permits to use the vault in my building."

Bass recently purchased the building housing his Tahoe Wellness, including the old El Dorado Savings. He wanted to remodel to make the old bank part of his business, something he says won't be able to do.

If Anthony and Bass are unsuccessful in getting enough signatures, the cannabis ordinance process can continue once the signature verification process is completed. Development agreements can be turned in between September 21 and October 19. At that time an independent five-member selection committee will review the application and rate them based on a pre-determined set of criteria. 100 points will be awarded to several categories including being local, level of experience in cannabis, operating experience in a regulated environment, plans to include hiring local employees and financial health. The applicant must also identify where the business will be located and provide property owner approval. The length of the final step, issuing permits, will depend on how many agreements are turned in.

If they are successful, development agreements will not be accepted. The City Council will decide to either repeal the ordinance and its regulations resulting in no ordinance for one year or send it all to the voters. It is too late for the 2018 election so a special election could be called in 2019 or they could wait until the 2020 general election.

South Lake Tahoe Director of Development Services Kevin Fabino said his staff has been very busy and are now in the process of writing the stock letters that will be sent to all applicants depending on the outcome of their application.

To view more of the licensing process and criteria, visit http://cityofslt.us/976/Cannabis. The complete ordinance, maps, guidelines and more information is contained in that site.