The Daily Breeze has the unfortunate job of relating all the endless back and forth
Redondo Beach this week nearly completed its process of creating guidelines for two cannabis dispensaries to open in the city, but took a tiny step back while defining the boundaries of where the businesses can operate.
The City Council was set to give a quick OK to ordinances allowing marijuana retail stores to operate in inland and coastal areas of the city, and setting regulatory standards for those businesses after recently giving the new rules preliminary approval.
But the panel doubled back on what exactly those rules are during the Tuesday, Feb. 18, council meeting — and will need the item to return once more to anchor it all in.
The City Council during a public hearing at its previous meeting, on Feb. 11, voted to approve the ordinances after talking out the parameters, and areas where the stores won’t be able to go. Councilmember Nils Nehrenheim dissented.
It was then set to be approved on Tuesday during a second reading on the consent calendar, a list of typically non-controversial, already discussed items decided in one sweeping vote. But Nehrenheim and Councilmember Zein Obagi Jr. pulled the cannabis item off of the consent calendar for discussion, restarting a conversation about where dispensaries shouldn’t be allowed.
After a handful of failed motions at the Tuesday meeting, the council voted to reapprove the ordinances with an amendment to the location requirements. Nehrenheim dissented again.
Dispensaries cannot be 1,000 feet of public institutional zones and permitted residential zones; within 1,500 feet of schools, day cares and youth centers; and within 150 feet of Dale Page Park. They also can’t operate where illegal cannabis retailers once did for at least five years after the violation or five years from the passing of the ordinance, and there can also only be one retailer within a given ZIP code or district in the city, per the location requirements in the ordinance.
Redondo Beach takes tiny step back on making cannabis shop rules official
