CALGARY—Prospective cannabis retailers will start to learn on Monday whether they’ll be able to open for business when legalization rolls around.

About 260 applications have been filed to the city’s planning and development department. According to a city spokesperson, the department will start making decisions on whether to accept or reject them on Monday, although it isn’t clear whether any stores will be approved by the end of the day.

Several Calgary-based cannabis companies, including Spiritleaf, are eagerly waiting to hear if they’ll be cleared to operate stores within city limits.

“We’re excited about the prospect of having certainty as to where we can open our stores,” said Darren Bondar, Spiritleaf’s CEO. His company submitted around 20 applications, spread out across several of Calgary’s neighbourhoods.

Ryan Kaye, vice-president of operations for 420 Premium Market, said they’ve also put in applications for around a dozen stores in Calgary, although it’s unclear whether all of them will be approved. Under the city’s bylaws, cannabis stores are required to be a minimum of 300 metres from one another (although these separation distances can be relaxed), around 150 metres from schools and emergency shelters, and about 30 metres from payday loan centres, pawn shops, and places of worship.

“We have multiple locations that are free and clear, and we’re moving ahead with those as quickly as we can,” Kaye said.

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It was his understanding that approval wouldn’t be an issue, Kaye added, so long as a proposed cannabis store had all its paperwork in order and didn’t violate the separation distances or other city bylaws.

When the city first opened its application process on April 24, prospective vendors applied in droves. By noon that day, the city had 226 applications. Each vendor was required to apply for a business licence, as well as development and building permits, and apply to the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, which oversees the province’s private cannabis industry. Applications also needed a police check.

It quickly became clear — even before the city moved to approve specific cannabis retailers — that certain areas in Calgary were likely to become cannabis “hot spots.” A map provided by the planning and development department showed clusters of cannabis store applications in trendier downtown neighbourhoods like Kensington and the Beltline, as well as along 17th Ave. S.W.

Meanwhile, other areas such as Chinatown have vocally opposed the possibility of cannabis stores in their neighbourhood. Around 50 residents and business owners held a protest last June over two applications — one of which has since been pulled — insisting that the stores weren’t a good fit for their neighbourhood, and that they hadn’t been consulted by the city.

The remaining cannabis store application is likely to face a lot of regulatory hurdles should it wish to continue, according to executive director Terry Wong of the Chinatown District Business Improvement Area. Chinatown is zoned as a direct-control district, he said, which restricts certain businesses from entering the area, including cannabis stores.

“Any application for that kind of stuff needs to go through not just the planning commission, but also be approved by city council,” Wong said.

Brandy MacInnes, the special project officer for the City of Calgary who oversees Calgary’s cannabis plan, will give details on how the city’s process for accepting or rejecting applications at a news conference Monday morning.

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With files from Mary Getenah, StarMetro Calgary

Correction: This story has been edited from a previous version which misstated Ryan Kaye’s title, and suggested in a headline that the City of Calgary first opened applications for cannabis businesses on Monday.

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