Courtesy Redwood City. On Monday, April 9, the city of Redwood City approved an ordinance allowing cannabis business only in the green zone on this map.
Redwood City is open for cannabis business, but marijuana operators aren’t particularly high about the terms.
At its Monday night meeting, the City Council voted 5-2 — with Jeffrey Gee and Vice Mayor Diane Howard dissenting — to approve an ordinance that establishes a zone where recreational marijuana wholesale businesses and indoor commercial-use nurseries can operate. That zone encompasses Seaport Boulevard east of Highway 101 and some areas west of the freeway on Veterans Boulevard. That’s where medical marijuana businesses before them primarily were relegated to.
City planners say those areas have a 3.89 percent vacancy rate, a fact they considered to be enticing to businesses.
Under the ordinance, the nurseries can only grow marijuana seeds, clones and immature plants and sell them just to wholesalers or commercial businesses, not individuals. They must provide 24-hour security and cannot operate within 1,000 feet of schools, youth centers, public parks and libraries. The state only requires them to be a minimum of 600 feet from schools.
In addition to medical marijuana deliveries that began in 2012, the ordinance allows recreational marijuana deliveries to businesses that obtain a business license in the city.
Kali-Rai, who also is a paid consultant for Harvest Bloom, one of the medical marijuana companies established in San Carlos with an administrative office in Redwood City. He said the company is worried it’ll have to comply with the new zoning rules if it expands into the recreational marijuana business.
Harvest Bloom owner/operator Alex Gillis explained the concern.
He asked if a business like his could be grandfathered in.
Also at issue for local cannabis proprietors was the rule in the ordinance requiring 24-hour security for businesses.
Business permits should begin to be issued this summer.