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8.A. - Page 9 of 15 <br />FISCAL IMPACT ON CITY RESOUCES <br />There will be some additional impact to City resources (primarily staff time) to expand the cannabis <br />program but with the assistance of the consultant this impact can be minimized and costs can be recouped <br />through the application fee. The initial consultant contract with HdL Companies to assist in developing a <br />cannabis regulatory program that includes all costs to develop, evaluate the applications and provide staff <br />assistance will cost $58,750. Should the City contract with HdL to assist staff with oversight of all the <br />cannabis businesses annually, the estimated cost of this service is $11,000 per business. This approach <br />would significantly reduce the impact to staff in overseeing these operations. In addition, the benefit of <br />utilizing HdL is that the consultant's costs will be recovered from the application and permit fees from the <br />prospective applicants and current licensed operators. Permit fees, which have yet to be determined, can <br />also cover staff time involved in processing permits and ongoing monitoring of business operations. <br />COMMUNITY OUTREACH <br />The City Council requested community input to help guide the retail cannabis discussion. Staff publicized <br />two workshops and solicited the assistance of the consultant to facilitate and conduct a presentation. <br />Workshops were held on February 18, 2020 at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center and March 5, 2020 <br />at the Fair Oaks Community Center (in Spanish). The goal of the workshops was to gauge the community's <br />interest and concerns associated with allowing cannabis retail storefront businesses to operate in the City. <br />During the meeting, an overview was provided and key areas of concerns such as public safety, land use, <br />environmental, public health, access to youth and oversight regulations were discussed. Community <br />members were broken up into small groups to discuss the following questions: <br />1. Should cannabis storefront retail businesses be permitted in the City? <br />2. How many businesses should be allowed in the City? <br />3. What type of restrictions should be placed on each of the operations? <br />4. What type of application process should be established for the issuance of the permits? <br />5. What are your concerns in allowing cannabis storefront retail businesses to be permitted in the <br />City? <br />In general, the feedback received was very positive. The twenty-two attendees supported allowing <br />storefront retail cannabis in traditional retail locations. The attendees indicated that retail locations in the <br />industrial zoned areas are not conducive for retail shopping, as they are not located in convenient retail <br />areas of the city, may be poorly lit and may feel unsafe in the evening hours. <br />The March 5, 2019 outreach meeting was intended for the Latinx community and materials and the <br />presentation were provided in Spanish. This date coincided with rising concerns regarding the COVID 19 <br />pandemic and only two members of the community attended. <br />In addition to the above community outreach, a survey was available online from February 5 to March 12, <br />2020 and then again from June 19 to July 5, 2020. The second survey was translated into Spanish with <br />specific outreach to the Latinx community. The survey consisted of the following questions: <br />Page 9 of 11 <br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.ore <br />162 <br />