City of North Vancouver is JUST accepting applications for retail cannabis stores

Nov 17 2018, 8:10 am

With Canada approaching the one-month mark since cannabis legalization, it appears the City of North Vancouver is just now getting on board with the whole idea.

On its website, the city it will begin accepting applications for recreational cannabis retail stores, beginning at 10 am on Monday, November 19.

Applications will be processed on a “first-come, first-serve” basis, the city said.

After the November 30 application deadline, staff will screen all received submissions. Any submissions deemed incomplete (i.e. missing information or containing inaccurate information) or non-compliant with the locational requirements will be disqualified.

Referral from the provincial Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) is also required to be submitted to the City during the intake period to be considered complete. This referral must come directly from LCRB. Disqualified applicant(s) will be notified.

After this initial screening stage, the first two complete applications received in Areas 1 and 2, and the first complete applications received in Areas 3 and 4 will be eligible to submit a rezoning application. Staff will work with these applicants to submit a full rezoning proposal package. A rezoning application fee of $4,026.25 will apply.

“If possible, staff will process the first batch of rezoning applications concurrently,” the city said. “All rezoning applications must proceed to Council for consideration, including a Public Hearing.”

Recreational cannabis retail stores must obtain a non-medical cannabis retail license from the provincial Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) in order to operate. Should an application be given Third Reading, it will be held until confirmation of provincial approval is received, prior to Final Adoption.

The city said as is the case with all rezoning applications, “Council retains the discretionary authority to approve or reject each individual application based on its own merits, context and other factors.”

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And while it may seem to some like the whole application process in the city has been a slow roll, the opening of an application process appears to be a quiet about-face by the city, which voted earlier this summer to ban cannabis dispensaries within its borders.

That decision came in late May of this year, when the council voted 5-1 to officially ban cannabis dispensaries within its borders.

It was made after three motions were carried under the agenda item: Cannabis Regulation: Zoning and Business Licence Bylaw Amendments.

The three motions were all with the intention to “to prohibit non-medicinal cannabis production and sales in the City.”

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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