Referedum against South Lake Tahoe cannabis ordinance gets enough signatures

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There will be no legal sales of adult-use marijuana in South Lake Tahoe until at least 2019 after the referendum against the City's Cannabis Ordinance passed. Assistant City Clerk Sue Blankenship certified the results of the sample signature count by the El Dorado County Elections Department and now it's the City Council's turn.

On Friday, September 28, 2018 the sampling of 500 signatures showed that 390 proved to be valid. By using the state's formula, it was determined that the petition contained a total of 1,308 statistically valid signatures. 1,687 signatures had been turned into the City Clerk.

Ten percent of registered voters were required, or 1,019.

The Tahoe Wellness Cooperative, the city's lone medical marijuana dispensary, was behind the referendum after owner Cody Bass found out he could not operate the same way he has for the last ten year if he was awarded an adult-use license.

TWC was grandfathered in as a medical marijuana dispensary and he could have continued in the same manner with the same services.

It was determined by the City's zoning boundaries that Bass couldn't apply for a microbusiness license for his current location, a building he said he now owns. Also at issue is the ordinance passed by the City Council only allows three of five license types for two businesses (microbusiness). Tahoe Wellness currently offers on-site consumption, retail sales, cultivation and extraction.

On-site consumption was not allowed under the ordinance passed. The five license types that a microbusiness licensee can chose from are cultivation, retail, extraction, distribution and delivery.

The SLT City Council has added certification of the referendum to their Tuesday, October 2 agenda. Per election law they can only do one of two things:

(a) Repeal the ordinance. If the ordinance is repealed , the ordinance shall not again be enacted by the Council for a period of one year after the date of its repeal by the legislative body; or,

(b) Submit the ordinance, without alteration, to the voters. They can submit the ordinance to the voters, either at the next regular municipal election, or at a special election called for the purpose, not less than 88 days after the
order of the legislative body. The ordinance shall not become effective until a
majority of the voters voting on the ordinance vote in favor of it.

To go to the voters at either the general election or a special election it will cost the City an estimated $33,443.60.

The Council meeting starts at 9:00 p.m. at the Lake Tahoe Airport.