Access the full article Here by JK Nineen at the San Francisco Chronicle on Aug. 10, 2017.
Even by the standards of San Francisco’s famously fractious land use fights, last month’s Planning Commission hearing on a plan to open a cannabis dispensary in the Sunset District was extreme.
The hearing lasted nearly seven hours. It included testimony from more than 150 members of the public. It was so heated that sheriff’s deputies had to be brought in to keep the peace in the hallway outside of the chambers.
But it wasn’t an isolated example: With sales of recreational marijuana set to become legal next year, the question of where marijuana is sold has become a hot topic at City Hall and in some of the city’s neighborhoods.
The uncertainties around that question became obvious when the Board of Supervisors gave final approval in July to a citywide Office of Cannabis and then rushed to put new conditions on the industry. During a vigorous discussion, the supervisors spoke of their many concerns about what legalization of recreational marijuana would look like in San Francisco when sales begin Jan. 1.
Some feared the new business sector would lack racial diversity and called for the office to write a lengthy report on the issue. Others worried that a cannabis boom would drive up prices for medicinal patients, so they asked for a second report. Supervisor Ahsha Safai successfully pushed an ordinance limiting the number of dispensaries in his Excelsior district to three, saying the businesses draw complaints from area residents.
Most contentious of all was something that people on all sides of the issue acknowledge is happening: the “clustering” of medical cannabis dispensaries in small geographical areas.
Of the city’s 38 dispensaries, District Six — which includes the Tenderloin and South of Market — has 13, about 34 percent. Many of these are clustered on or near Mission and Howard streets in SoMa — Urban Pharm at 122 10th St., the Green Room at 843 Howard St., SFFOGG at 211 12th St., Sparc at 1256 Mission St., Barbary Coast Collective at 953 Mission, and Re-Leaf Herbal Cooperative at 1284 Mission. And of the 27 in the pipeline — either proposed or approved but not open yet — District Six has 13.
The clustering is a result of zoning laws put in place in 2006. Medical cannabis dispensaries are banned from most areas that are zoned residential or industrial. They must be located at least 1,000 feet from a school or facility serving individuals younger than 18.
In a city as dense as San Francisco, where most neighborhoods are full of recreation centers, parks and schools, the land use restrictions have forced dispensaries to bunch up in “green zones” — the few slivers of the city where they are allowed.
Santino DeRose, a commercial real estate broker who leases retail space in neighborhoods across the city, said locations where dispensaries are allowed are in high demand. “If we list a property in a green zone, we get bombarded with calls,” said DeRose, although he added that many landlords won’t lease to them because cannabis is still illegal under federal law.
Erich Pearson, co-founder of Sparc, the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center, which operates medical cannabis dispensaries in the Lower Haight and SoMa neighborhoods, said the city should reduce the 1,000-foot buffer zone to at least 600 feet, which is the distance that Proposition 64, which California voters approved last year, lays out. State law gives counties and cities the autonomy to lower it or expand it.
“Even 600 feet in San Francisco is too restrictive,” he said. “You’re still going to have a lot of clustering.”
He said he supports a moratorium on approvals of dispensaries, which could be converted into recreational pot stores, until new regulations are in place. “It’s hard to say that we should let 30 new applicants continue to cluster in neighborhoods that are already oversaturated, when others have none,” he said.
In addition to zoning restrictions that block dispensaries in many areas, residents on the city’s southern edge — both the Outer Mission and Visitacion Valley areas — say there is a flood of dispensary applications because of the proximity to San Mateo County, which so far has not allowed any cannabis dispensaries to open.
“We are under siege in our neighborhood,” said Joelle Kenealey, president of the Outer Mission Merchants and Residents Association. “And until San Mateo County makes changes, we are going to be under siege.”
There are three medical cannabis dispensaries on Outer Mission Street, and two more close by on Ocean Avenue. Two dispensaries have applied to open next door to each other on Bayshore Boulevard in Visitacion Valley. Another seven applications have been submitted nearby in District 11, although most were withdrawn either because of zoning issues or strong neighborhood opposition.
Safia, who made controlling dispensaries a centerpiece of his campaign last year, said the number of dispensaries in operation is sufficient to meet the cannabis needs of his constituents.
Amanda Ostrowitz, co-founder of CannaRegs, which tracks cannabis laws nationwide, said some of the stress San Francisco is experiencing is because the city is years ahead of many other California cities and counties in regulating dispensaries.
“San Francisco is running into more problems because they have been so far ahead of everyone else in the state,” Ostrowitz said. “Most jurisdictions are waiting and watching other people.”
Cities and counties across the state have tackled dispensary clustering in three ways, she said: a straight cap on their number; limiting them to specific zones and requiring a certain distance between locations. San Jose, which has just over 1 million residents, will allow only 16 licenses. Berkeley set its limit at six. California City (Kern County) allows one for each 13,000 residents — the current population — with a maximum of two. Arcata in Humboldt County limits dispensaries to a small “medical marijuana innovation zone.”
While the state allows dispensaries within 600 feet of a school or child-serving organization, most cities and counties set it at 1,000 feet, Ostrowitz said. In Richmond, it’s 1,500 feet.
And beyond the question of where cannabis may be sold in the city, there is also the question of where it will be grown. Real estate broker John M.E. Stevenson said growers, mostly affiliated with individual dispensaries, are scouring the Bayview neighborhood and industrial parts of SoMa and the eastern Mission District for warehouse space, often offering two or three times more rent than other users do. But for the most part they are shut out because federally regulated banks won’t lend money on buildings that have cannabis-related businesses.
“Most landlords won’t even look at a (medical cannabis dispensaries) deal,” he said. “There is an overwhelming number of growers running around looking for locations.”
The Board of Supervisors will take up the cannabis zoning issue in September. At the board’s last meeting in July, Supervisor Malia Cohen asked for a 45-day moratorium on new cannabis business permits when the board returns from summer recess in September.
“This is not mean-spirited,” Cohen said. “This is not cloaked to deceive anyone. This is truly an opportunity … so we can pause and assert what the heck we are doing.”