AgdaPkt 2020-08-24 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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doubled and expected to be $170 million this fiscal year. Having a sufficient number of retail storefronts will not only satisfy the growing consumer demand for safe legal regulated products but also draw consumers away from the illegal marketplace of untested, unregulated & untaxed products. Also, as the market grows the greater the number of cannabis storefronts, the better the ability to collect revenue dollars due to the city. Question 2: Should cannabis retail storefront businesses be permitted to conduct delivery services as part of their cannabis business permit? Staff recommends that the City allow cannabis retail storefront businesses to conduct deliveries. - I agree with the staff recommendation because a significant number of customers that frequent the retail store will want the convenience to purchase the product from the dispensary they frequent. Also, delivery during Covid-19 is prudent as a health safety measure. Finally, retail storefront retail relies on at least 20%+ of their sales on delivery sales. Delivery for a retail storefront dispensary should be seen no differently that a restaurant with a dining room also using door dash or grub hub to meet their consumer needs. Question 3: Should cannabis storefront retailers be permitted in all zoning districts allowing general retail? Staff recommends classifying storefront retail cannabis as "general retail" and allowing retail cannabis stores to be located in all of Redwood City's zoning districts by right that already permit general retail (Table 1). - I agree with the staff recommendation that storefront retailers be permitted in all zoning districts by right and also by the conditional use permit process as in the case of Industrial Park (IP) but that the minimum 30,000 sq. ft. requirement be eliminated. If the 30, 000 minimum sq. ft. requirement is not eliminated then there is a de facto prohibition of cannabis retail in the IP Zone. The minimum 30,000 sq. ft. requirement requires the creating of a Big Box Cannabis Store. The only city that I know such a retailer to exist is in Las Vegas where Planet 13 Cannabis dispensary occupies a space of 100,000+ sq. ft. but only 16,500 sq. ft. is storefront retail so even in this case the largest dispensary would not satisfy the 30,000 sq. ft. minimum requirement (the remainder of the Las Vegas store is manufacturing, event and entertainment space - per Cannabis Dispensary Magazine November 2018). There is almost universal consensus in the Cannabis Industry that finding real estate is the single hardest part of opening a retail dispensary. The reason it is so hard to site a cannabis retail facility is due to a number of factors: 1) the need to distance from sensitive receptors (600 feet from K-12 schools both public and private, commercial daycare centers, and youth facilities), 2) properties that have most types of financing/banks prohibit cannabis retail, 3) many landlords hold a moral objection to cannabis and prohibit it in their buildings and 4) most CC&R's prohibit cannabis businesses. Once all of these limiting factors are overlaid upon the available property map there are few if any properties that are available. Finally, another reason to allow cannabis retail use available in all the zoning districts and specifically eliminate the 30,000 sq. ft. minimum in the IP district is because if too small a swath of properties are made available the City will risk the clustering of cannabis retailers or the inadvertent creation of a green zone. This is akin to what occurred in Palo Alto/East Palo Alto when Stanford University had a 1 mile alcohol prohibition and resulted in the creation of an alcohol retail zone better known as "Whiskey Gulch."