Community Corner
When is a Youth Center Not a Youth Center?
When the City Wants to Allow a Pot Shop Next Door
On Tuesday, Nov. 27, the Alameda City Council is poised to vote on eliminating all youth recreational and cultural establishments including martial arts schools, dance schools from their definition of a “youth center,” in order to allow storefront marijuana businesses to locate in more places in this family-friendly, youth-oriented city.
The current ordinance requires that storefront dispensaries must not be located within 1,000 feet of K-12 schools, child care centers, and “youth centers.”
The buffer zone has since become challenging for potential marijuana storefronts to identify appropriate locations. In order to accommodate the location of a proposed marijuana dispensary located at the corner of Webster and Haight streets, the city is considering the removal of martial arts schools, dance schools, and other recreational and cultural establishments that serve children. International Chi Institute, a popular martial arts school which teaches performance martial arts, not combat, is located next door to the proposed location on Webster. Over 90% of the school's students are under 18 and a toddler program is starting soon. On the Haight side of the proposed dispensary is the Quba Mosque which is frequented by families daily.
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Representatives and supporters of both the mosque and the school are protesting the city’s move to choose (potential) profit over the well-being of their communities and are organizing a petition drive. They are not against marijuana businesses from locating in Alameda, but they want the same protections for their children that are being provided to the more “mainstream” youth facilities. They are in the process of forming a coalition of Alameda residents called Pot Watch to ensure that the health and safety needs of families, children, and youth are considered as local laws are developed to allow for cannabis businesses.
The current definition of Youth center is compared with the proposed changed version below.
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| Current definition of Youth Center in the municipal code | Proposed "Youth Center" definition |
| Youth centers are defined as any public or private facility that is primarily used to host recreational or social activities for minors, including, but not limited to, private youth membership organizations or clubs, social service teenage club facilities, video arcades, or similar amusement park facilities. The definition of “youth centers” also includes any facility determined by the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department to be a recreation center in a City park. | “Youth Centers” means any public or private facility that is exclusively used to host recreational or social activities for minors (under 18 years of age), such as, private youth membership organizations or clubs, social service teenage club facilities, or amusement facilities. “Youth Centers” does not include any building, location, or facility where any programs, activities, or services: (a) are offered at private residences, (b) involve martial arts/combat sports, cultural or similar education, or physical fitness, or (c) are offered for fewer than five (5) hours per day each day the building, location, or facility is open. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Youth Centers shall also mean any facility determined by the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department to be a recreation center in a City park. |
The proposed changes would eliminate buffer zone protections for all martial arts schools, dance schools, the Aqua Tech Swim School, the sailing and the fencing clubs – locations where children and youth congregate and frequent – while maintaining protections for schools, childcare centers, and parks recreation centers.
The 1,000 feet buffer zone provision was adopted less than a year ago after the Alameda school board, PTA council, one of the major pediatric practices in the city, and public health advocates urged the council to include protections for youth in the new law allowing for marijuana businesses in Alameda.
Decades of research into the proximity and density of alcohol outlets in cities has shown that there is a direct correlation to increased underage alcohol use with proximity to outlets. In Colorado where recreational marijuana has been legal since 2012, marijuana dispensaries are located most densely in low income communities and that negative impact has been documented.
A National Institute of Health research article in 2016 on marijuana dispensaries in California found that marijuana hospitalizations increased with proximity and density.
Please contact Lau_Joanna@hotmail.com the International Chi Institute for more information about the petition.
For details of the proposed changes, please see the staff report on City of Alameda's website: https://alameda.legistar.com/L...
