Cannabis ordinance up for vote at Thursday's Planning Commission

The City of South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission are expected to vote on the new cannabis ordinance during their meeting on Thursday, November 9 at 3:00 p.m.

The new ordinance will repeal and replace Article X of the City Code.

With what looks a City Council with three new members, the ordinance will most likely go before them during their first meeting on December 11, 2018. If Cody Bass, the president of Tahoe Wellness Cooperative and South Lake Tahoe's medical dispensary, holds on to the third council seat he will have to recuse himself from the discussion and vote.

But first, it must pass the Planning Commission.

The proposed ordinance covers the following points:

- Maintain the current prohibition of on-site consumption at retailers but include a re-opener provision to reconsider the issue in one year.
- Tighten up the owner and operator requirements in the current ordinance to ensure "straw men" won't be used to circumvent local owner/operator benefits.
- Change the permissible use category use category for cultivators from "nursery" to "industrial services."
- If one or both of the microbusinesses that end up getting permitted do not have a distribution component, add up to two additional stand-alone distribution licenses for a maximum of four distribution licenses.
- If one or both of the microbusinesses that end up getting permitted do not have a retail component, add up to two additional stand-alone distribution licenses for a maximum of four retail licenses.
- Remove requirement that no more than one permit will be issued per lot or parcel, with requirement that permittees must operate in separate suites or units.
- Add four permits for manufacturing (non-volatile extraction and packaging) and establish a maximum footage of building space for this permit type.
- * Allow existing permitted medical marijuana dispensary to temporarily expand land use to include adult-use retail within existing space for a period of three years under the same conditions as City Code Section 6.55.840. At the end of the three years they would have to obtain a public safety license and use permits (like all other cannabis locations) to continue to operate.
- Instead of the 10 points for the direct economic benefits provided to the City, establish a community impact fee to be based on actual costs to the City and a community public benefit between zero and eight percent of gross receipts received with points awarded based on percentage. This would also require a change to the Development Agreement Application Guidelines previously adopted.

* Anything concerning Tahoe Wellness is subject to the result of an injunction after the owner (Bass) got enough signatures to put a stop to the previously approved ordinance.

If the Planning Commission approves, and the City Council approves during the first reading on December 11, a second reading would come in January with an ordinance in place 30 days after that.

The Planning Commission meets in the City Council Chambers at the Lake Tahoe Airport at 3:00 p.m.