Council greenlights another pot shop

Another pot shop may be setting up shop in the city of Vernon, this time along Anderson Way.

Council voted to give a positive recommendation to the store proposed for 115-5100 Anderson Way.

The proposed store would be located near a restaurant, dry cleaner, optometrist office, hearing clinic and clothing store.

A total of 66 letters were sent to adjacent businesses and property owners. The city received one no objection response and one letter of opposition from the owners of the nearby optometry clinic.

“We believe that the presence of a cannabis retailer in this small professional building will make it more difficult to attract new patients and will be detrimental to retaining our existing families. Our concerns would match those of any small childcare facility, NONA-type child health service centre and or a pediatrician’s clinic,” the letter stated.

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The cannabis retail store still needs to be approved by the province in order to officially set up shop.

Shops stuck in limbo

Two polices restricting cannabis retail stores were imposed by council this year.

In April, the city capped downtown pot shops to six and in July, the cap extended to the entire city, limiting the number of pot shops to the 22 applications already received.

The abrupt policy change meant some cannabis retail stores were stuck in limbo after trying to transfer their application from the downtown core to another area of the city.

A lawyer for one prospective pot shop owner appeared before council to request an exception.

A report brought to council revealed two applications were impacted by the policy change and council ultimately agreed to give them the green light at Monday’s council meeting.