Vancouver board of variance set to begin hearing appeals from dozens of marijuana dispensaries

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      On Wednesday (February 17), Vancouver board of variance will begin a time-consuming process of listening to appeals from 62 marijuana dispensaries that are upset about the city rejecting their development-permit applications.

      It will be the first day of many like it that are expected to continue all the way through to November.

      The dispensaries have been denied permits for contravening new bylaws the city adopted last June. Specifically, most of them were disqualified from the regulatory process for operating within 300-metre buffer zones set around schools, community centres, and other cannabis storefronts.

      Dispensaries up for the first day of hearings include Cannpassion Medicinal Cannabis Society, the B.C. Pain Society, and one of Weeds Glass and Gifts’ many locations.

      In a telephone interview, Andreea Toma, chief licensing inspector for the City of Vancouver, said the board operates at arm’s length from the city. She declined to speculate on how it might rule on appeals.

      If a dispensary’s appeal is denied, Toma said they can file another development-permit application for an alternative location. However, as previously reported by the Straight, there aren’t actually that many locations that fall on the right side of the city’s bylaw requirements. Vision Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang has estimated that once the dust settles on the regulatory process, the total number of dispensaries operating in Vancouver might not be more than 20, down from an estimated 100 today.

      Meanwhile, Toma said the city has granted tentative approval to 14 dispensaries and allowed them to move forward in the regulatory process to apply for business licenses.

      She said that any other dispensaries that continue to operate past a deadline of April 20 can be shut down at any time.

      Asked how that deadline will be applied to any of the 62 dispensaries that are scheduled to go before the variance board after that date, Toma suggested punitive actions could be decided on a case-by-case basis that takes an operator’s past conduct into account.

      “I think it depends with regards to our relationship with that existing establishment,” she said. “The city has the right to enforce any and all of our bylaws, and I believe our focus will be on the ones that have had poor business practices, the ones that have received more complaints.”

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