City of Monterey considers bringing cannabis retail to community

© KSBW During Monterey City’s Council meeting Tuesday night, staff presented a draft of bringing cannabis retail sales to Monterey. In a 4-1 vote, city leaders voted to revisit the topic with an updated draft.

During Monterey City’s Council meeting Tuesday night, staff presented a draft of bringing cannabis retail sales to Monterey. Bringing such establishments to the city has been in conversation since September 2020, when the City Council launched a Cannabis Policy Framework.

Tyller Williamson, mayor of Monterey, shared with Action News 8 that he’s in favor but does see concerns.

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“I think it’s a good thing for the community to receive revenue and in support of the various programs that we want to do within the city of Monterrey, particularly around housing,” Williamson said. “I think there are some concerns around safety in the community, but I think that those can be mitigated by, you know, some of the benefits that that we expect to come through the program.”

Back in 2021, the city directed staff to come up with no more than three different store locations throughout the city. The city is now on step 3 of its 6-step process. Tuesday night, staff presented three locations— Downtown Monterey (except Alvarado Street), Cannery Row (except fronting Cannery Row itself), and Lighthouse District. The draft included those three locations, one delivery-only business and an unlimited amount of cannabis testing labs.

“One of the conversations that have been had is around the idea of supporting cannabis-related events in the city of Monterey. So do we want to allow an ordinance to include having cannabis-related events where their sales of cannabis?” Williamson said.

During public comment, many people from the community weighed in from both sides of the topic. Some people were in favor while others raised concern about cannabis stores possibly attracting crime.

Ultimately, in a 4-1 vote, the board decided not to move forward with the presented proposal but to instead revisit it with an updated draft. The updated draft will include consideration of bringing a limited number of cannabis events to the Monterey Fairgrounds, along with a fourth store location.

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