Benicia City Council Votes To Ban Cannabis Retail Businesses

From The City of Benicia: At last night’s Benicia City Council meeting, the City Council voted to direct staff to introduce a zoning code amendment that would prohibit cannabis retail businesses. This direction reverses previous City Council action in 2018 where it adopted a zoning ordinance that allowed for two (2) retail cannabis licenses. The change in direction followed a lengthy discussion and public testimony on whether or not to set additional buffer areas between retail cannabis outlets and sensitive land uses such as parks. The City already prohibits retail cannabis within 600 feet of schools. With the addition of the proposed buffer areas, there would be a very limited area available within the City to locate retail cannabis outlets.

The direction provided by the City Council was consistent the Brown Act in that the recommended action was to discuss the merits of amending the existing ordinance to regulate the location of retail cannabis. The Council action provided direction to the staff about bringing forth an amendment to the Planning Commission and ultimately to the City Council restricting the location of cannabis retail businesses. As a result of last night’s vote, City staff will prepare the modification to the zoning ordinance for consideration by the Planning Commission at a properly agendized meeting. The results of that body’s actions will be presented to the City Council at a future agendized meeting for final action on whether to, in fact, prohibit retail cannabis businesses within the City.

In the meantime, no further action will be taken in regard to the nine (9) applicants who have been involved in the competitive selection process for the City’s two cannabis retail licenses. At the time of last night’s action, the City had yet to issue any public safety license or use permit for a cannabis retail business. Moving forward, the City will continue to process permits for non-retail related cannabis business, such as cultivation, manufacturing and distribution which remain as allowed uses in the Benicia Industrial Park.