Municipal Code 5.87 will go into effect Aug. 29, and its restrictions — mainly those having to do with proximity to schools — on medical marijuana collectives will nullify more than 40 of them.
“We’re working on the process, and we’re already in the midst of readying enforcement for Aug. 29,” said Erik Sund, the city’s business relations manager. “It’s going to be a process, but we’re aware of all the collectives, and proper noticing has already occurred for those affected by Aug. 29.”
Sund said he estimates that between 92 and 95 collectives are operating within Long Beach city limits today.
However, the new collective permitting laws set forth in Municipal Code 5.87 restrict where collectives can operate. They cannot be within a 1,500-foot radius of a public or private high school and they cannot be within 1,000-foot radius of a public or private institution that services kindergarten through eighth grade.
Because of those specific restrictions, between 55% and 70% of those existing collectives will be operating illegally if they do not cease operation before next Monday, Sund said. He was unable to release the specific names of those collectives.
The city is still vetting applications for official permitting. About 54 applications were received for collective permits, Sund said. Some of those permits may be included in the 90-plus that already are open, while others could be slated to open if they receive a permit, he added.
“Everyone who submitted an application is still going through the review process,” Sund said.
That review process is scheduled for completion in the near future, possibly within the next 10 days, Sund said, and then the list of those that applied will be made available. It will be completed before the Sept. 20 lottery, which will decide the other most difficult part of the new law: No collective may operate within a 1,000-foot radius of another collective.
Officials are working on securing a lottery machine to use ping pong balls for a show that will be open to the public and all interested parties, said Mike Mais, assistant city attorney.
“The way it will work, let’s say if you are the first applicant pulled and then there is another applicant (within the 1,000 feet) who’s number or ball is pulled — that second person would be disqualified because they’d be within a buffer zone,” he said. “So yes, there could be some unhappy applicants. We thought very carefully, and it’s the fairest way. It’s totally at random and we’re going to use every safeguard we can to make sure it stays that way.”
While Sund said he was unable to speak on the specifics, some collective officials have gotten early word whether they have cleared the first hurdle.
“We are actually in the system,” said Matt Abrams, co-director of collective One Evol (“love” backwards). “We’re in the system and we have a lottery number.”
Abrams and his fellow directors will need the lottery number, because their location on Broadway is within 1,000 feet of the collective S.H.H. across the street.
Abrams said he and his colleagues were willing to roll the dice on keeping the collective. Application fees are between $10,000 and $30,000 depending on how big the collective is and there will be no refund for those collectives that lose the lottery.
“We had this money put away for potential problems, so basically that money came from our legal fund,” Abrams said. “The ultimate backup plan is if we don’t win, try to find another location. The problem is, the city hasn’t let us know when another application process would be.”
Once the lottery is completed, all of the new law will apply, and those collectives that lost also will have to immediately close.
“Technically, they’re all (currently) in violation (until applications are officially approved),” Mais said. “We hope that if they are illegal (either on Aug. 29 or Sept. 20) that they’d simply cease operation.”
Sund said his department, the attorney’s office and the Long Beach Police Department would work to ensure the new law was being followed.
Besides the “buffer zones” other difficulties for regulation include the need for sufficient sound-absorbing insulation, sufficient odor-absorbing ventilation and exhaust system so that odor generated inside the property is not detected outside the property, that the collective is operating without profit, and that all marijuana sold is cultivated within the city limits and that all cultivation sites are registered with the city.
Sund said his office has worked on reaching out to applicants with workshops to make sure they fill out the paperwork properly so that they can be considered.
“(The process) has been tough, but it’s being handled pretty well — but it’s definitely been difficult,” Sund said.
According to Abrams, getting through to City Hall hasn’t been so easy.
“Honestly, I feel like this is playing out pretty long,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of communication and honestly there have been a lot of unknowns.”
Much of that mystery will be cleared away in the coming weeks, as more specific information on the collectives will become public information, Sund said.
The complete municipal code, including the new marijuana ordinance, is at http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=16115&stateId=5&stateName=
California.
Posts
