Cannabis users in Port Moody are going to have to wait a little longer before they can buy their bud locally.
At its meeting Tuesday, Port Moody council deferred a decision on how the city will regulate the establishment of cannabis retail stores in the city until they can further discuss the issue in a meeting of the committee of the whole.
A staff report presented to council recommended the city allow pot shops.
The report, authored by Port Moody’s policy planner, Jess Daniels, said there should be a 200-metre buffer between such stores and sensitive areas like schools, playgrounds, daycares and community centres, as well as a 500-m distance between the outlets themselves.
But Port Moody Mayor Rob Vagramov said such a buffer might be too onerous, limiting the opportunities for retailers to set up shop.
“I’m personally much more on the laissez-faire side of this,” he said.
In her report, Daniels said implementing a 500-m buffer between stores would have the effect of capping the number of stores in the city as it would permit only one shop to operate in each of three commercial areas of the city: the Clarke/Elgin street area; the St. Johns/Williams street area; and the 910- to 916-block of Clarke Road. She said such a buffer could be “easily implemented.”
But Vagramov suggested if the intent of the buffer zones is to cap the number of retailers, then that’s what the city should do, “rather than fake cap it with burdensome buffer zones.”
Several other councillors also cautioned the city shouldn’t be too restrictive.
“It’s a legal substance,” Coun. Meghan Lahti said. “There’s no reason to be too restrictive on it.”
Others questioned the lack of information from the provincial government on how revenues from retail cannabis shops would be shared with municipalities.
“If Port Moody does not have retail cannabis, do we still get a share of revenue?” said Coun. Diana Dilworth.
In her report, Daniels said 54% of respondents to a recent survey conducted by the city supported retail cannabis stores in Port Moody. She said 887 surveys were completed, the second highest response to any public consultation survey the city has ever conducted.
Of the 40% of respondents who said cannabis stores should not be allowed in Port Moody, several worried about the effect such shops would have on the city’s “community feel” and family-friendly nature.
“Let’s not promote all the big-city trends and growth,” one respondent stated.
Daniels said while 76% of the survey’s respondents supported a buffer between retail cannabis store and schools, playgrounds, daycares as well as community centres, the preferred distance ranged from 75 to 300 m, with 38% supporting the latter.
Support for a buffer between cannabis stores was more divided. Daniels said of the 675 responses to that question, 49% supported a buffer, of which more than half wanted it to be 500 m. And 58% of respondents said they wanted a cap to the number of cannabis stores in the city, with almost a third of them suggesting it should be no more than one.
The report said 10 potential cannabis retailers attended a stakeholder meeting in city hall’s Brovold Room last Nov. 22.
