Planning Staff Nixes Changes to Make Locating Pot Pharmacies Easier in City

• Distance from Schools, Parks and Houses of Worship Urged

BY BILL KOENEKER

The staff of the Malibu Planning Commission is suggesting the panel recommend to the city council that it deny any rule that would reduce the distance between pot pharmacies and schools, parks, places of worship, or other “sensitive areas.”

The planning panel is scheduled to consider a zone text amendment changing those rules next week at its regular meeting.

The municipality’s law states that any dispensary should not be located within a 1000 foot radius of a church, temple, or places used primarily for religious worship, or a playground, park, library, licensed child day care facility, nursery school or school.

Green Angel Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary, is located within 1000 feet of Las Flores Canyon Park, according to the city.

The collective has come before the planning commission and city council on several occasions, trying to get the proper permits since the council enacted an ordinance regulating pot pharmacies.

Green Angel has been told the 1000-foot limit was the law and would have to be changed.

Both the planning commission and the city council said they could do nothing but uphold the 1000-foot radius distance and Green Angel should come back with a zone text amendment to change the distance requirements.

However, the planning staff, after analyzing the three alternatives submitted by an attorney representing Green Angel, insisted none of them are workable or meet the council’s intention.

The first alterative works as a grandfather clause and stipulates that only a dispensary operating since Jan. 1, 2007, could be located as close as 501 feet from any of the sensitive areas.

“An illegal, nonconforming use is not eligible for ‘grandfathered’ rights and approval of this alterative would allow Green Angel Collective to exclusively benefit from the proposed ZTA because it commenced operation without permits, during a time in which dispensaries were not allowed,” the staff report states.

Another alterative, turned down by the staff, would be to allow pot pharmacies within 500 feet of the various sensitive facilities if the dispensary could not be seen because the church, school or playground is separated by some topographical feature 50-feet or more and is more than 1000 feet of walkway between the two.

The staff responded that it would work for Green Angel but indicated they could not determine whether that alternative would work for other facilities and did not know since it required resources the staff does not have.

The third alterative suggests the 1000-foot restriction could be relaxed for just playgrounds and parks, but not other facilities such as churches, schools and other sensitive locations.

The staff indicated when the original law was under consideration by the council, members insisted 500 feet was not sufficient in mitigating secondary impacts of dispensaries. The city council then increased the distance to 1000 feet.

“ZTA alternative No. 3 does not meet this intent and the applicant has not presented any evidence to demonstrate that a reduction in the distance requirement will not have a negative impact on the areas identified as sensitive locations,” the staff report concludes.

The staff has determined that there are several locations within the city that appear to comply with the current provisions of the ordinance, but that depends on whether the property owners of those locations would be willing to lease their property to a pot pharmacy, according to the staff report.