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Ordinance Amendment No. 2022-01 - Commercial Cannabis Regulatory and Tax <br />Updates <br />May 3, 2022 <br />Page 9 <br />2 <br />5 <br />0 <br />8 <br />and further incentivize the pending/selected businesses that have not yet opened to <br />properly locate and open. <br />Lastly, the amendments would terminate the Measure BB Waitlist, which has consistently <br />shrunk since 2015 from 575 entities to its current five (5). Pursuant to Measure BB, each <br />year waitlisted entities must notify the City of their desire to remain on the Waitlist, and <br />the City updates the Waitlist annually between April and May. The amendments would <br />set forth a process by which the City may notify the waitlisted entities of the intended <br />termination and allow them to apply for the five (5) new retail locations under the proposed <br />ordinance. In addition, as with the 2018 process for new adult-use retailers, those <br />waitlisted entities would be subject to a merit-based scoring of their application and would <br />receive “bonus” points for having been on the Measure BB Waitlist. This method will <br />ensure consistency with prior processes and create a fair opportunity for those waitlisted <br />entities to submit competitive applications to operate new retail locations in the City. <br />Buffer Requirement Modification <br />All commercial cannabis businesses were initially subject to specific, codified regulations <br />for separation from sensitive land uses (schools, parks, and residential zones) under <br />Measure BB for medicinal cannabis retail sales, and subsequently by Ordinance No. NS- <br />2929, which created Chapter 40 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code for all other commercial <br />cannabis business activities. The regulations allowed commercial cannabis business <br />activity in the City’s light and heavy (M1 and M2) industrial zoning districts and required <br />a 1,000-foot separation from these sensitive land uses; no accompanying map was <br />officially adopted to illustrate these parameters. <br />Following redevelopment of industrial properties east of the Costa Mesa (SR-55) <br />Freeway, the City Council adopted a map of commercial cannabis eligible areas on March <br />20, 2018 in which commercial cannabis business activities could locate subject to full <br />compliance with applicable local, County, and State regulations. The map, however, is <br />currently in conflict with existing ordinance language requiring the 1,000-foot buffer from <br />residential zones. <br />Among the actions proposed for City Council consideration to address this conflict is <br />adoption of a resolution establishing new map largely based on a new 600-foot buffer <br />from schools, parks, or properties zoned for residential purposes. The new map would <br />expand the available properties for commercial cannabis businesses east and west of <br />SR-55 and in the industrial areas near Harbor Boulevard and the San Diego (I-405) <br />Freeway. The proposed ordinance would also be modified to reflect the map, rather than <br />specify the buffer in text. Modification to the map could take place with future resolutions <br />as needed, without requiring an amendment to the overall ordinance.