Sechelt’s planning committee is recommending the district’s three existing cannabis dispensaries be told to shut down then apply to reopen under temporary use permits, as part of a package of bylaw amendments that would bring Sechelt in line with changes to federal and provincial law.

In a presentation at the committee’s May 23 meeting, planner Angela Letman told councillors that because the dispensaries have been operating without business licences, the district could be forced to consider them “legal non-conforming” if bylaw amendments are passed while they remain open.

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Temporary use permits follow a process similar to rezonings, with a council vote required for approval. The application fee is $1,000.

Letman told the committee that the planning department has prepared a series of amendments that would update the existing zoning for medical marijuana production, the smoking bylaw, the business licence bylaw, and the fees and charges bylaw.

The amendments would allow growing for non-medical use (with appropriate licences) in the same industrial areas and with the same buffers around schools and parks currently in place for medical cannabis production. They would also add a provision to allow growing at home for personal use as allowed under the pending federal law.

The smoking bylaw changes would ban smoking or vaping of marijuana everywhere smoking is currently banned.

The proposed bylaws would also ban so-called “consumption lounges,” which are not yet being considered under the federal or provincial laws, but could be in the future.

A public consultation will be launched to help guide council in deciding where retail sales will be permitted.

Committee members raised a few technical questions, mainly on the production side, and Coun. Alice Lutes also wanted to know if there was any likelihood that municipal regulations could be overridden by the province.

Letman assured her in areas such as the smoking bylaw the provincial regulations give municipalities the same powers as they have over tobacco use and any provincial retail permit would require council support.

Coun. Darnelda Siegers said, given the number of changes involved, she’d like to “see an opportunity for the community to get fully engaged with this prior to a public hearing” and favoured a staff suggestion to hold an information meeting.

“The meat and potatoes of this particular item is the issue of how we deal with the existing marijuana dispensaries,” said committee chair Noel Muller, who also said the emerging regulations around non-medical marijuana use are a “great example of intergovernmental cooperation… Now we’re going to go out to the community and see what the community thinks of it.”

Muller also said, however, that he “will be watching for, and voting against, anything that looks like a continued prohibition of marijuana, because that’s not the intent [of the federal law].”

The committee voted unanimously in favour of the six-point recommendation from planning staff, which will now go to full council.

Letters advising dispensaries they will have to close and inviting them to apply for temporary use permits are expected to go out after council endorses the committee recommendations.

In her written report Letman said, “For those existing dispensary/retail outlets that do not agree to a temporary use permit, council should require the closing of the dispensary/retail outlet within 30 days, before the adoption of the proposed zoning bylaw amendment.”

District planning staff said this week that they were in the process of contacting the owners of 420 Hemp Shop, Weeds Glass and Gifts and WeeMedical to bring them up to speed on the committee decision.

All of the area’s local governments will have to consider how they want to regulate cannabis sales in the coming months.

Councillors in the Town of Gibsons and directors at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) are awaiting staff reports on regulating non-medical cannabis production and sales. The SCRD report is due to come forward in June and Town of Gibsons staff expect to send a report to council in late summer or early fall.