Cannabis stores could set up shop along Morinville’s two main streets under a new law now before town council.
Morinville council passed first reading of proposed changes to the town’s land use bylaw last week. If approved, the changes would make cannabis sales a discretionary use (one requiring both a permit and a development officer’s approval) in the town’s primary, general, and corridor commercial districts, which are for the most part currently found along 100 Avenue between 100 Street and the west side of town and along 100 Street south of the Sobeys.
The proposed changes would clarify that greenhouses, convenience stores and specialty stores are not places where you could sell cannabis. They would also forbid cannabis sales if any part of the store’s outer wall was within 100 m of a land use banned by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Regulation.
While the federal and provincial governments control most of the rules around cannabis sales, it’s municipalities that regulate the zoning for cannabis stores.
The province has said that cannabis cannot be sold in any place that also sells alcohol, tobacco, or pharmaceuticals, and cannot be sold within 100 m of any school or hospital, Goodeve said. The Municipal Government Act requires the town to make its land-use law comply with these restrictions.
Goodeve advised council to make cannabis sales a discretionary use similar to how the town treats alcohol stores in these commercial zones.
Adding cannabis sales to the land-use bylaw didn’t mean that the town would actually approve a cannabis store he said – the law covers adult entertainment too, but there aren’t any of those outlets in town. The town was not currently accepting applications for cannabis stores, as the federal government has yet to legalize recreational cannabis.
Calgary and Edmonton councillors have similar land-use bylaw revisions for cannabis before them and are now doing public consultations, Goodeve said. Other communities had proposed larger school and hospital setbacks or banned cannabis stores entirely.
While Morinville might ultimately decide it doesn’t want any cannabis stores, the federal government wants communities to have these debates before it legalizes cannabis, said town chief administrative officer Andy Isbister.
“Once the legislation is enacted and it is legal … we need to be ready to deal with it.”
Coun. Stephen Dafoe noted that the province now had its cannabis rules in place and that the federal ones were now before the Senate.
“Cannabis will be legalized. The question is when. We need to be prepared.”
Council will hold a public hearing on this law on April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers, said town spokesperson Felicity Bergman.
County actions
Sturgeon County also stepped forward on cannabis regulation last week.
In a pair of 6-1 votes, county council voted to accept a report on cannabis legalization and to have administration draft changes to the land-use bylaw to regulate cannabis production and distribution. Coun. Dan Derouin was opposed in both cases.
County planning and development manager Colin Krywiak recommended that the county define cannabis retail sales and cannabis production and distribution in the land-use bylaw to make it clear that these uses were currently not allowed anywhere in the county. The county should then ask the public where it wanted cannabis sales and production to be legal before enacting further changes to the bylaw.
Krywiak is set to table proposed definitions later this year.
https://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/...s-20180321
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