Item 25 - Ordinance Amendment No. 2022-01 - Commercial Cannabis Regulatory and Tax Updates

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Ordinance Amendment No. 2022-01 - Commercial Cannabis Regulatory and Tax Updates September 20, 2022 Page 11 2 5 0 8 process would follow the same selection process employed in 2018 using merit-based criteria. Commercial Cannabis Eligible Areas Map All commercial cannabis businesses were initially subject to specific, codified regulations for separation from sensitive land uses (schools, parks, and residential zones) under Measure BB for medicinal cannabis retail sales, and subsequently by Ordinance No. NS- 2929, which created Chapter 40 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code for all other commercial cannabis business activities. The regulations allowed commercial cannabis business activity in the City’s light and heavy (M1 and M2) industrial zoning districts and required a 1,000-foot separation from these sensitive land uses; no accompanying map was officially adopted to illustrate these parameters. Following redevelopment of industrial properties east of the Costa Mesa (SR-55) Freeway, the City Council adopted a map of commercial cannabis eligible areas on March 20, 2018 in which commercial cannabis business activities could locate subject to full compliance with applicable local, County, and State regulations. The map, however, is currently in conflict with existing ordinance language requiring the 1,000-foot buffer from residential zones. Among the actions proposed for City Council consideration to address this conflict is adoption of a resolution establishing new map largely based on the existing 1,000-foot buffer from schools, parks, or properties zoned for residential purposes. The new map would specify on a parcel-specific level those properties that are eligible for commercial cannabis businesses. The proposed ordinance would also be modified to reflect the map, rather than specify the buffer in text. Modification to the map could take place with future resolutions as needed, without requiring an amendment to the overall ordinance. Consumption Lounges and Temporary Events State law was modified in 2019 to create a framework allowing cannabis consumption lounges and temporary (special) events with cannabis consumption. Cannabis consumption lounges are permitted to be opened and operated by businesses holding a retailer license. The proposed amendments would allow the City’s commercial cannabis retail businesses to submit applications to operate consumption lounges on the same site as and physically contiguous to a cannabis retailer. In addition, standards would be in place to allow temporary consumption festivals organized and held by the City, and temporary consumption events held by cannabis retail businesses. Several development and operating standards are included to ensure the health and safety of visitors to retailers and to minimize impacts onto surrounding properties. Among these, lounges will need to be designed so that a patron need not enter a consumption