City Council Will Consider Changes to Cannabis Ordinance – Again

The City Council will deliberate Monday on loosening some of Pasadena’s strict cannabis regulations.

The new regulations would allow up to three cannabis retailers per council district, instead of one, and decrease the required distance between cannabis retailers from 1,000 feet to 450 feet. 

“There are so many uses that dispensaries must be separated from, changing the distance required from each other had little impact — it did not really open up that many additional spots,” according to a city staff report. “Moreover, those locations that might meet the required standards may not be available for lease.” 

According to a staff report, Pasadena has some of the strictest licensing regulations and distancing requirements in the state.

In a May staff report, Pasadena officials claimed the present situation is not in the best interest of the city and is not in keeping with the intent of the voters who approved of cannabis retailing in the city and reasonably expected there to be a total of six cannabis retailers doing business.

Those same voters opted for a maximum of six dispensaries and voted for distance requirements between cannabis dispensaries and churches, schools and parks.

The proposed amendments would remove those distance requirements by adopting requirements imposed by the state.

The city chose six dispensaries in 2019 to move forward in its process: Integral, Atrium, Sweetflower, Medmen, Harvest and Tony Fong.

So far, only two of those dispensaries, Integral and Tony Fong, have opened. According to a staff report, Harvest has plans to open in District 3.

Atrium, MedMen and Sweetflower unsuccessfully attempted to sue the city after they were not allowed to advance in the process.

Atrium and Sweetflower lost appeals and were supposedly out of the process after turning in incomplete applications. However, now they appear to be back in. MedMen was also disqualified, and Harvest has not yet been awarded a conditional use permit (CUP) needed to open.

“In all likelihood, anything you do now will simply create more litigation against the city,” wrote local attorney Richard McDonald in correspondence to the City Council. 

In 2019, the council shot down an effort to amend the cannabis ordinance when it tabled a motion that would have changed the law to allow up to three dispensaries to operate in each of the city’s seven council districts.

During that hearing, several council members expressed concern that changing the ordinance would go against the will of the voters and 41 people sent correspondence opposing the change.

At that meeting, the mayor and council were asked to revisit the discussion on the city’s cannabis regulations once three cannabis retailers were operational so that staff could evaluate the impacts on the city and the cannabis market.

Despite qualification for bringing the item back to the council, three cannabis retailers have never been legally operating in the city.

At least four unsuccessful lawsuits have been filed against the city.