Redwood City will allow marijuana retailers

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Redwood City may become the first city along Highway 101 between San Francisco and San Jose to have pot shops.

City Council on Monday (Aug. 24) gave City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz the go-ahead to write an ordinance allowing up to six pot shops.

Cannabis industry lobbyist Sean Kali-Rai said that people on the Peninsula will flock to Redwood City instead of going to San Jose or San Francisco to get pot. Kali-Rai also said that the proposed six businesses would fulfill the demand for brick-and-mortar pot shops in the area.

Palo Alto, San Mateo, Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Carlos and Los Altos have all rejected cannabis retailing.

Pot stores would not be allowed within 600 feet from a school or child care center. Despite those boundaries, pot shops could open up along most of El Camino Real, from Harrison Avenue to the city’s border with unincorporated North Fair Oaks and from Arch Street to Avondale Avenue, along Woodside Road from Union Cemetery to Safeway, at Woodside Plaza and between El Camino and railroad from Northumberland Avenue and Diller Street, and a small handful of other spots throughout town.

Resident Javier Gutierrez told council it’s important to him that the shops are the correct distance away, and pointed out that in some of the areas where pot shops are allowed, they may also be where children play.

Gutierrez was the only person who expressed any worry about marijuana retailing during the council meeting held on the Zoom platform due to the pandemic. The rest of the people who commented were either in support of pot shops or run businesses in different aspects of the marijuana industry.

Doug Chloupek, founder and CEO of the marijuana delivery service Juva Life in Redwood City, urged the council to require applicants for retail licenses to have a lease in hand and the property owner’s permission to open such a store.

Chloupek said cities that haven’t required a lease or the owner’s consent have been flooded with applications.

Most of the council seemed interested in requiring applicants to have a lease and the owner’s permission.

The proposed regulations say the minimum size of a marijuana retailer in the city’s industrial area would be 30,000 square feet, about the size of a supermarket.

Councilwoman Giselle Hale questioned the 30,000-square-foot minimum, saying residents probably wouldn’t want a store that large.

“It sounds bizarre,” Hale said.

She wondered aloud how many products a store would have to stock in order to require 30,000 square feet of space.

None of the council members expressed any concern over the idea of allowing as many as six retailers in Redwood City.

The city has a 4% gross receipts tax on cannabis retailers, which could become a regular revenue stream for the city. Hale noted that cannabis sales tend to be recession-proof.

The city can increase the tax up to 10%, but the city’s consultant, David McPherson, recommended that the city just have a 4% tax for now and then reassess how the businesses are doing once they are established.

High taxes are blamed for weaker-than-expected rollout of legal marijuana in California. Retail pot sales are being undercut by a thriving illicit market, where consumers can avoid taxes that can approach 50% in some communities, the Associated Press reports.

If there are six retailers in the city, the city’s 4% tax would bring in a projected $1.32 million a year, according to a report from Assistant City Manager Alex Khojikian.

The only other city in San Mateo County that has pot shops is Pacifica, with two.
Mountain View had initially allowed for up to four pot shops. But after a new council was elected in 2018 and an organized campaign by Chinese parents, the decision was reversed and only delivery businesses are allowed in Mountain View.

San Carlos allows businesses such as the manufacturing of pot products and nurseries to operate, but no retailers.

9 Comments

  1. A better neighbor, comparing pot to opium is silly. Blaming China’s fall from being a power on it is just dumb and racist. How about colonialism, famine, and revolution.

  2. We already have had nicotine and alcohol addiction for 150 years. We’ve done fine despite 1000’s of people die of them and not one person cared/cares.

  3. Good for Redwood City and the new revenue it will get. Guess the other cities would rather cut servicves for residents to placate the Chinese parents who insist on imposing their voiew of history on the rest of us.

  4. Shame on the RWC city council for bringing
    into a city with two high schools and a junior high,
    drug addiction via pot shops – which gets kids kicked out of school. And providing a first level entry into harder drugs which ruin lives. Additionally, drugs increase crimes.

  5. This will be a good thing for Redwood City. It will bring in badly needed tax revenue. Surveys have shown that teenagers are trying Cannabis less than before it was legal. The illegality of it was the attraction. Cannabis is not addictive like nicotine, alcohol or heroin and does not lead people to try other drugs. The largest segment of increased usage of Cannabis is the elderly, who find its pain relief a blessing. Cannabis has been legal for years now and there has been no evidence that it is a negative influence on cities. If in doubt about its effects, ask your parents about it.

  6. False, Packman. This study in JAMA Psychiatry said that after legalization, youth use more marijuana https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2755276. And here’s another study by the University of Washington and published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that says when states legalize cannabis, teens are more likely to use it. https://www.potnetwork.com/news/new-study-finds-legalization-contributes-increase-teen-use-cannabis.

    Moreover, research has found that marijuana is definitely addictive. Here’s some research that will help you understand that https://elemental.medium.com/is-marijuana-addictive-ab3a99b4276e https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/addiction/types-of-addiction/marijuana https://www.healthline.com/health-news/marijuana-addiction-rare-but-real-072014#1

    Packman, many people are in denial if they’re hooked on marijuana. If you’re one of them, get some help before it’s too late. But don’t spread myths.

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