Armstrong residents can have their say on whether the city allows retail cannabis stores to operate.
Council voted unanimously to set up an online survey, a mail-out, request for submissions and/or a public hearing or open house to provide input on the subject.
Council also directed staff to provide a report with recommendations as it relates to the sale of cannabis in retail outlets, including the choice to opt out of permitting cannabis retail stores after public input is received and evaluated.
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Councillors Paul Britton and Shirley Fowler were absent from the meeting.
“There are public hearings every day at the restaurants, coffee shops, barber shops and hair salons,” chuckled Mayor Chris Pieper. “It would be good to have as much public input as possible. We could schedule a public meeting at the Oddfellows Hall. I’m not sure how many people would show up. We’re all interested in moving forward with this.”
City corporate officer Jennifer Graham said the staff has come up with three potential options to regulate cannabis retail sales.
One is a closed approach, where local governments can ban the retail sale on all land within the municipality.
Another is a highly regulated bylaw amendment approach, which would involve official community plan and zoning bylaw regulation amendments, demanding staff and council’s time to create new policies and rules and reviewing zoning applications for each proposed store.
But, said Graham, the option favoured by a lot of smaller municipalities is a regulated policy approach where the city could allow retail sales of cannabis under a new policy.
“This would be the simplest approach for the city to administer, and no zoning bylaw amendments would be needed,” said Graham. “Council would have significant control of whether to recommend a licence and could dictate guidelines and expectations.”
Council would be asked to provide a resolution of support or non-support on a referral for a provincial retail licence application. Council, said Graham, would not be bound to support a provincial application even if the zone of the property permits the use.
Public input is required for each new provincial retail licence application.
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Council could also get the public’s desire for where stores should be located within the permitted zone.
“I think a public meeting would give a generic feeling for the community as to where we’re going, but every application must have a public hearing,” said Pieper.
Added Coun. Gary Froats: “It’s important that we as a city bring some rules and regulations to let people know it’s available. We all know it’s a waste of money applying to the Liquor and Cannabis board (Regulation Branch) to get approval if we are saying no in the city. We have to let the public know that with rules, yes, we’ll probably allow it.”
No date for any public hearing or open house has been set.
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