The Town of Golden hosted a public hearing to introduce cannabis retail into the C2 zone within the municipality, and introduce cannabis production into the M2 industrial zone.
Nobody in the gallery at the council meeting on December 4 spoke in regards to changes being made to Golden’s zoning to allow for cannabis retail and production.
“The idea is to introduce it to the C2 zone as an introduction into one zone within the municipality,” said Town of Golden planner and manager of development services Phil Armstrong.
Town council will work on a policy that they will use when looking at cannabis retailer ad production applications, which will come from the province.
“Policy works to set out criteria council will consider when receiving a referral from the Liquor Cannabis Regulation Branch. Some of the statements in the policy include looking at how many liquor primary cannabis retailer stores are in the vicinity, and generally the location, say there’s not three or four on a block for example, and cannabis retail for example is not located in an area next to where kids congregate,” Armstrong explained.
Many communities are also implementing a cap on the amount of cannabis retailers in their towns and cities.
The Corporate Policy Applications from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch outlines application requirements, previous policy direction from council on cannabis retail, previous liquor applications, how council will conduct the provincially mandated requirement to gather the views of property owners and occupants in the applicable area and the community as a whole, and criteria town council may consider when evaluating an application.
“So all of these statements in the policy are suggestions that council should consider when reviewing an application. They are not set in stone, they only apply to new applications received by the Liquor Cannabis Branch,” Armstrong said.
The zoning bylaw introduces the use so that the Town of Golden will be able to oversee provincial applications for referral.
The Town of Golden has also worked on an update to the fees bylaw for occupant load, liquor licenses, and cannabis retail, and has updated that they may gather residents’ views in a number of ways for cannabis retail and production applications and licensing, which will include signage at the property, newspaper ads, and mail outs to properties within 100 metres.
The Province of British Columbia will not issue a license without approval and a recommendation from the Town of Golden council through a unique public gathering process for each application.
Town council gave the zoning amendment bylaw No. 1402, 2018- Cannabis its second and third readings at the council meeting on December 4.
