Quick Take
On Tuesday, Mayor Fred Keeley will ask the city council to adopt a temporary emergency ordinance that would impose at least a 45-day moratorium on the establishment of new commercial cannabis businesses in the city of Santa Cruz. Keeley said the moratorium will give the city a chance to “step back” and study its existing cannabis laws around everything from dispensary distance from schools, tax rates and delivery laws, to security and licensure.
For months, the possibility of a retail cannabis dispensary moving into the old Emily’s Bakery location on Mission Street has stirred a passionate opposition from the Santa Cruz City Schools district and parents who feel the dispensary is too close to Santa Cruz High School and Mission Hill Middle School.
The Hook Outlet’s proposed Mission Street location would be its third, after Watsonville and Capitola. Roughly 850 feet away from Santa Cruz High and more than 1,300 feet from Mission Hill, the lot is well outside of the city’s required 600-foot buffer. The Hook Outlet’s application meets all of the city’s requirements for a new dispensary location (and even exceeds them in some areas) and gained approval from the city’s planning commission March 7.
That did little to cool the fiery opposition. The planning commission’s decision was appealed to the city council, which is scheduled to make a decision May 14. Despite the dispensary meeting all of the city’s requirements, the city council has narrow authority to deny the permit if it determines the business would negatively affect public health.
Amid the back-and-forth that wrought op-eds, letters to the editor, social media posts and a packed planning commission meeting, Mayor Fred Keeley is proposing that the city slow the roll.
On Tuesday, Keeley will ask the city council to adopt a temporary emergency ordinance that would impose at least a 45-day moratorium on the establishment of new commercial cannabis businesses in the city of Santa Cruz. Keeley said the moratorium will give the city a chance to “step back” and study its existing cannabis laws around everything from dispensary distance from schools, tax rates and delivery laws, to security and licensure requirements.
“I hope this turns the heat down on everyone’s front,” Keeley said. “Instead of firing off letters back and forth, and having schools get into the land-use business, and all sides making claims, I want to have a working group sit down and talk to each other.”
Keeley said The Hook Outlet’s application has become a proxy venue for the community to air out the good, bad and ugly about the cannabis industry. Delaying all cannabis-related decisions for at least 45 days and talking through the issues would, he said, allow for a “dispassionate” approach.
Bryce Berryessa, The Hook Outlet’s founder, said he’s not confident a moratorium would do anything for his case.
“I don’t see how stalling this out plays to our benefit; I think it just adds more time, and more costs. We want to come to a resolution,” Berryessa said. “The law and the city’s code and every facet of good governance is on our side. I’m confident that good governance will prevail.”
Neither Santa Cruz City Schools Superintendent Kris Munro nor spokesperson Sam Rolens returned requests for comment. However, in a letter to the city’s planning commission ahead of its March 7 approval of The Hook Outlet’s permit, Munro said the opposition to the dispensary was out of a “moral obligation.”
“I know that having the dispensary farther away will not eliminate the problem of student cannabis use, but I believe we have a moral obligation to mitigate access in whatever way we can,” Munro wrote. “… Having access to a supply so close to our schools will have a negative impact.”
Berryessa did not say whether he plans to sue if the city council still denies the permit despite him meeting all of the city’s rules and requirements.
“Right now, we’re putting our faith in good government prevailing; we want the city council to follow the law and help local business,” Berryessa said. “I’m wondering what kind of precedent it would set to deny a permit to a local business that has a great reputation in the community, that works with institutions to help the sick and dying, and was even deputized by the city to lead its medical cannabis program.”
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