Manhattan Beach voters may decide next year whether marijuana shops can move into the city.
A resident served the city in July with an initiative ordinance petition, seeking to have the city repeal its existing ban on commercial cannabis activity and allow up to three state-licensed dispensaries.
And the City Council this week took the wait-and-see approach, deciding to let the process of collecting enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot — an effort petitioner Philip Wandel has undertaken — play out, instead of drafting a counter ordinance or having staff analyze potential impacts.
If 10%, or 2,700, of the city’s 27,000 registered voters sign the petition by April 26, they will force the city’s hand. The City Council would have to vote to adopt the measure as-is within 10 days of signature verification, place a measure on the ballot for the November 2022 election or call for a special election earlier than that.
Upon signature verification, the council could also direct staff to write a report on the potential impacts, but then would have 10 days after that report is presented to either adopt or send the issue to an election.
The ordinance would legalize commercial cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, distribution and lab testing while prohibiting cannabis microbusinesses, allowing permitted retailers to operate, including for deliveries, in commercial districts more than 1,000 feet from schools and youth centers, and 850 feet away from daycare centers.
Councilwoman Suzanne Hadley said Tuesday, Dec. 7, that she thinks it’s unlikely the initiative will make it to the end, and that staff shouldn’t spend time creating a competing ordinance or determining the impacts of something that probably won’t happen.
“Unless and until this qualifies, I’m dead set against it and hope it fails,” Hadley said. “I don’t want to be out building the life boat if we aren’t going to need it.”
Manhattan Beach currently bans commercial cannabis, but residents can grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes or connected structures. Cannabis deliveries are not allowed and the plant can only be consumed in single-family residences and duplexes.
But that’s not good enough, Wandel’s attorney has said.
“There are no legal outlets for the lawful purchase of cannabis and cannabis products by qualified patients in need of (it) for medicinal purposes and adults over the age of 21,” George Yin, Wandel’s attorney and spokesman for the initiative, previously told the Daily Breeze via email. “Instead, an illicit market continues to flourish with unregulated and untested cannabis being sold (in) or delivered (to) Manhattan Beach.”
Wandel is not in the cannabis business, Yin added, but is an advocate for sensible cannabis regulation and access.
But city also prohibits all kinds of smoking in public places and bans tobacco product sales. So the possibility of cannabis coming to town has rankled some.
Heather Kim, a resident who has owned a store in the city selling tobacco products, said she sees hypocrisy if the city gives any consideration to the cannabis initiative.
“As someone negatively impacted by the tobacco ban,” she said, “this is a total slap the in face to (tobacco) retailers.”
But it’s not necessarily up to the council.
If the council doesn’t automatically adopt the ordinance upon verification of signatures, it’ll still be in residents’ hands in the form of a ballot measure. And the city could draft its own cannabis ordinance for voters to consider alongside Wandel’s.
Wandel wants cannabis businesses to be untaxed, the petition said, and instead have them directly contribute the equivalent of 2% of their projected gross profits to a public school, public park or nonprofit community organization in the city.
But if the City Council doesn’t agree with retail that won’t generate sales tax for the city, it can come up with a separate ballot measure to establish a tax on commercial cannabis sales.
The rest of the beach cities, all which currently prohibit cannabis sales, were also hit with similar petitions over the summer. In El Segundo, for example, the petitioner has until Jan. 26 to collect enough signatures on its ordinance asking for up to two dispensaries in that city.
Hermosa Beach, however, hasn’t gotten the actual petition yet, said city spokeswoman Laura Mecoy, but in November was served with a letter of intention to circulate a petition.
Redondo Beach staff, meanwhile, is drafting its own ordinance to allow up to two cannabis stores in the city, with a 5% tax that would go to the general fund.
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