HAYWARD — After all of the ballots were counted in November, Hayward council members say there is one outcome city voters made clear: Recreational marijuana use should be legal in California and taxed in Hayward if dispensaries are allowed.

“Obviously, I think the recreational (marijuana use) is coming. It will be here all around us, so we should probably participate in it,” Mayor Barbara Halliday said at the March 21 City Council meeting where the topic was discussed.

Though the council agreed unanimously that Hayward’s dispensary ban should be lifted, some members were split on other details, including where dispensaries should operate and how much they should be taxed.

“This has been a tough issue for me because I think, like a lot of families in Hayward, I have seen how drugs have destroyed families,” Councilman Mark Salinas said.

“I’ve seen how families have coped with and really struggled with kids and other parents using drugs, with pot being one of them,” he said.

In the November election, 60.63 percent of Hayward voters supported Measure EE, which allows the city to impose an up to 15 percent tax on gross sales for all marijuana products along the supply chain, from cultivation, distribution and manufacturing to retail sales.

Fifty-six percent of Hayward voters supported Proposition 64, which allows adults age 21 or older to possess, use, sell, transport, process and cultivate marijuana.

“When we talk about opportunities in our lifetimes, we very rarely have the opportunity to have a brand-new industry show up. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the dot-com (industry), but that’s it,” said San Rafael-based attorney Scot Candell, who specializes in medical marijuana law.

“We have a brand-new industry with tremendous potential and … it’s coming, and it’s going to be here. The question is: Does Hayward want to participate, and if so, to what extent and how do they want to do it?” he said at the meeting.

Six council members — Halliday, Salinas, Al Mendall, Elisa Marquez, Francisco Zermeno and Marvin Peixoto — said they would like to see marijuana businesses, including cultivation and processing, concentrated primarily in the industrial areas of Hayward.

They also agreed that at least three retail stores should be permitted in Hayward but not in the city’s residential areas or downtown.

“I think there’s an intriguing opportunity here for Hayward because we do have a large biotech contingent … already in Hayward,” Mendall said.

“A lot of the research and what-not around cannabis could fit well with the industrial concentration that we already have, so we have, perhaps, an opportunity to become an attractive location for that type of research or work, and I think that would be a good thing. I wouldn’t want to have a hundred of them on Day One, but I’d like to see how that goes,” he said.

Councilwoman Sara Lamnin agreed but said retail stores could be appropriate along B Street in downtown Hayward.

“When I envision a retail establishment, I envision the Buffalo Bill’s of cannabis products, not those that have cardboard or foil on the window,” Lamnin said.

“There’s a new place, for example, called the Barbary Coast in San Francisco, and that’s a very high-end place. This is our opportunity to say, ‘What does Hayward want and what’s distinct about us,’ ” she said.

Three council members — Lamnin, Halliday and Salinas — said they would support imposing a cannabis business tax and fees that will cover possible administration and enforcement cost increases, such as hiring more city inspectors. But they do not want taxes so high they chase prospective business operators and customers away to other cities.

As part of the state’s new marijuana laws, cities are allowed to impose an annual administrative fee to cover certain costs, including inspections and financial audits, City Manager Kelly McAdoo said.

“I do want to see it, of course, taxed appropriately and to a point where we do collect the revenue from this,” Salinas said.

“If we’re going to do this, I certainly don’t want to push people out of the city to do business. But at the same time, I do want to see the revenue generated from this have a high priority on kids, youth programs, and supporting law enforcement and public safety in and around this area,” he said.

Mendall said he would be willing to consider a higher cannabis business tax rate, about 10 to 12 percent, for retail and distribution businesses but a lower tax rate, about 5 to 8 percent, for other cannabis businesses.

“I’m not terribly worried about the taxes creating a huge black market, and if it does, we can always adjust it later as needed,” Mendall said.

City staff members will use comments from the meeting to come up with recommendations to the council by June.

Contact Darin Moriki at 510-293-2480 or follow him at Twitter.com/darinmoriki.