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The Calgary Downtown Association is raising concerns about the potential for over-concentration of cannabis shops along Stephen Avenue due to a lack of required minimum separation distances between stores throughout the downtown.

In a letter to Coun. Druh Farrell, whose ward encompasses the downtown, the association says it is worried “about the potential of proliferation of cannabis related uses (along) Stephen Avenue and 8th Avenue S.W.”

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Unlike the majority of the city, downtown Calgary is exempt from bylaws that require cannabis stores to be separated by at least 300 metres.

Farrell raised the issue in council chambers Monday, suggesting it was an oversight not to have applied the same rules around clustering to the central business district as exist elsewhere in the city.

“We’re seeing applications that are on the same block,” Farrell said, pointing to a two-block stretch of Stephen Avenue that has already seen three applications.