Sacramento city council weighs limits on cannabis lounges
Sacramento leaders, having recently opened the door to establish the city’s first cannabis lounges, on Tuesday weighed what geographic limitations they may set, and how much input neighbors may have when a lounge is proposed in their area.
Many of Sacramento’s cannabis dispensaries and growers are concentrated in a few parts of the city, council members said, as they debated how to avoid similarly high densities of lounges.
“I must admit, I find this challenging, because it seems to me there’s a needle we’re trying to thread,” said Councilmember Roger Dickinson. “The sale of cannabis is legal, and it’s in our interest to ensure that as much of the sale of cannabis is legal as possible… It’s still a very sensitive issue.”
Many residents of his district, he said, would prefer not to have any cannabis businesses in their neighborhoods.
The council steered city staff toward using conditional permits that would give members of the public more opportunities to weigh in when a lounge is proposed — and allow cannabis business owners to plead their cases.
City staff proposed 600-foot buffers around “sensitive” institutions like libraries and substance abuse rehabilitation centers. The Planning and Design Commission proposed adding additional buffers around faith-based institutions, child care centers and other dispensaries.
Some council members worried that those restrictions would make it impossible to open a lounge. With those areas blocked, “it’s really hard to imagine where you can even go,” said Councilmember Caity Maple.
The panel voted against imposing caps on the number of lounges in a given council district, but directed staff to explore other means of limiting the density, like by zip code or census tract.
Councilmember Eric Guerra said many of the city’s cannabis businesses are located in his district, which is primarily east of Stockton Boulevard and south of the American River, and in Dickinson’s district, north of the river.
“While it’s a citywide policy, it really is a District Two and a District Six policy,” Guerra said. “In general, the impacts have been in those two areas.”
