Title
Staff Report for an Urgency Ordinance to Amend the San Leandro Municipal Code to Prohibit the Issuance of Additional Medical Cannabis Dispensary Permits or Land Use Approvals
Staffreport
RECOMMENDATION
Per the direction of the City Council provided at its October 3, 2016 regular meeting, staff presents for the Council's consideration an urgency ordinance to prohibit the issuance of any additional medical cannabis dispensary permits or related land use approvals beyond the issuance of three that would facilitate the operation of additional retail medical cannabis dispensaries in San Leandro.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
The City Council adopted a medical cannabis dispensary ordinance that allows for the issuance of up to three medical cannabis dispensary permits. As of the date of this staff report, the City Council has already issued two such permits. The issuance of the third dispensary permit is also scheduled for consideration by the Council at tonight's meeting. Given that none of these permit awardees have commenced operations, coupled with the rapidly evolving legal and regulatory environment at the state and federal level, the City Council is interested in pausing the issuance of any further retail medical cannabis dispensary permits. Such a pause will allow additional time for the first three dispensaries to finalize any outstanding permitting and entitlements and begin their operations, and allow sufficient time for the City to carefully monitor and regulate their operations once they begin dispensing medical cannabis to patients. A pause in the issuance of additional dispensary permits will also allow additional time for the City Council and City staff to closely monitor the status of various legislative and regulatory changes that are under discussion at the state and federal level and/or which may be considered by the electorate as part of the upcoming November 2016 election.
The adoption of this Urgency Ordinance is designed to formal...
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