by Garth Meyer
In the eighth hour of the Redondo Beach city council meeting Tuesday night, the council concluded a discussion about how to license two cannabis stores, charting progress for what rules are used to evaluate applicants — company benchmarks, site distance from youth centers, tax rate, and which city entity hears appeals.
What was decided is: city staff will select the two companies to open stores; city council will act as the appellate body; no community benefit plan is required (donations from gross sales to community non-profits or the city); some of the criteria for choosing a store will be pass/fail and some scored, such as quality of management and security and safety plans.
“I’m hoping that by late 2025, early 2026 to have our first store open,” Mayor Jim Light told Easy Reader Wednesday.
Discussion resumes Oct. 8.
Much of Tuesday’s agenda item regarded how to avoid lawsuits, for which a cannabis chain representative told the council they are often threatened but rarely come to fruition.
The night’s starting point was a draft ordinance written by consultant Tierra West. The city council previously agreed on some groundwork in a May 14 meeting.
“People are going to be motivated to pounce on any error in the process,” said City Attorney Mike Webb.
“… Litigation is likely. The charge of bias is going to permeate throughout.”
Webb expressed concern for how the scoring will be done in a 100-point system.
“You need to decide who is scoring it,” he said.
The council agreed it would be a group of city staff appointed by the city manager.
“This is going to be an unpleasant process for whoever gets assigned to it,” Webb said.
Public comment Tuesday night ranged from cannabis owner/operators giving their perspective, to local activists saying the process should speed up, or be paused.
The matter was first considered by Redondo Beach in 2017.
“There is so much wrong with this ordinance. So much we can get attacked on,” said Jonatan Cvetko, United Cannabis Business Association executive director, and a member of the Redondo Beach cannabis steering committee.
Discussion continued. Distances from youth centers remained at 600 feet. Consideration was given for a proposed requirement that applicants have previously run a cannabis store with $10 million in annual sales.
The number drew scrutiny from the public with operators saying a very well-run store in a saturated market could struggle to bring in $10 million, while the same shop could clear more than $20 million in another area.
City staff will review this.
Tax rate? Two councilmembers wanted four percent sales tax on cannabis products and two councilmembers wanted five percent.
The matter was left to be decided next time, Oct. 8, when Councilmember Todd Loewenstein will be back. He was absent Tuesday.
The council made the designation that it would field any appeals of retail cannabis’ licenses, similar to how a decision by the planning commission may be appealed to city council.
Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr., put forth a rule that one store would be in zip code 90277 and one in 90278.
Councilman Scott Behrendt wondered if there is enough good spots in the city to limit it like that.
Stores cannot have common ownership was another item solidified for the ordinance.
Redondo Beach is the only of the three beach towns set to allow retail cannabis. ER
by Garth Meyer In the eighth hour of the Redondo Beach city council meeting Tuesday night, the council concluded a discussion about how to license two cannabis stores, charting progress for what rules… Read More