Sacramento could ban pot shops, massage parlors, other businesses along this street
The Sacramento City Council is poised to ban a slew of businesses from opening along two sections of Folsom Boulevard in an effort to revitalize the corridor.
The ordinance, which the council will consider Tuesday, would ban new cannabis dispensaries, massage parlors, check-cashing businesses and some tobacco retailers from opening along Folsom Boulevard. The ban would apply between 63rd to 69th streets and also from Howe to Watt avenues.
The ordinance would aim to “attract a greater mix of land uses to the area” and also to “maintain and improve the character, quality, and vitality of the area,” according to a city staff report.
The proposed ordinance was drafted after residents started asking Councilman Eric Guerra for ways to revitalize Folsom Boulevard with more family-friendly businesses, he said.
“Families are coming back into the neighborhood, people are buying their grandparents’ homes, Little League is doing well,” Guerra said. “There’s that energy we should capture.”
The ordinance would be a way to prevent strip mall owners from filling their spaces with “low hanging fruit” such as more of what is already there — massage parlors, check-cashing businesses and smoke shops — so the neighbors can play a role in what they want the boulevard to look like, he said.
The College-Glen Neighborhood Association started asking the city to ban new massage parlors from the area after repeatedly hearing from police officers at their meetings about how prostitution and sex trafficking is occurring in some of the locations, said Annette Deglow, president of the association.
“When they (shut them down), they just take the sign down, move to the other side of the street and start up again,” Deglow said. “It’s just been a big cycle.”
The council is discussing a citywide ordinance to strengthen the power of code inspectors to cite and shut down massage parlors suspected of offering sexual services and victimizing the workers in them.
Controversial dispensary ban
The ordinance would prohibit new storefront cannabis dispensaries, as well as new delivery-only dispensaries, from opening in the area.
Although there are no storefront dispensaries along the corridor, the neighbors are concerned there soon will be, Guerra said.
“We were concerned (cannabis businesses) would come into our shopping centers and compound what was already a problem,” Deglow said.
Some residents are also concerned that cannabis businesses could give easier access for students at nearby Cristo Rey High School to marijuana, Deglow said.
Joshua Drayton, spokesman for the California Cannabis Industry Association, called the idea to ban dispensaries from the corridor “absolutely ludicrous.”
“The cannabis industry in general in California has been forced into industrial parks the whole way through,” Drayton said. “Here we are at a place where we are coming through a pandemic where jobs have been lost, where there is no economic recovery in sight, and we’re further restricting an industry that could play a huge role in economic recovery.”
While the state and many cities limit dispensaries near schools and churches, Drayton has said he has not heard of another city to ban them from a section of a roadway as a revitalization technique.
When Sacramento first allowed dispensaries to open about a decade ago, there were strict zoning requirements, so many of them ended up in industrial areas, including in Guerra’s southeast Sacramento district. A few years ago, the city loosened its requirements, leading to several shops moving closer to the city. One shop has applied to relocate to 8551 Folsom Blvd., within the area where new shops could be banned.
It’s possible the council could allow that shop to open by granting a special exception, city spokeswoman Kelli Trapani said.
Most dispensaries sign neighborhood agreements, volunteer to clean up trash in the area, install lighting and security cameras, and donate heavily to charity, said Caity Maple, vice president of government affairs for Perfect Union, a cannabis business with several shops in the city.
Although it won’t affect Perfect Union, the ordinance could make it harder for the business owners of the 10 new storefront dispensaries that the city is allowing to open — residents most impacted by the War on Drugs, Maple said.
“I wonder where are these equity applicants are going to find locations for potential dispensaries?” Maple said.
Instead of massage parlors and pot shops, Deglow would like to see more restaurants open and maybe a flower shop, she said.
“We’ve been waiting for this,” Deglow said. “The question is just how long would it take to get positive growth on Folsom.”
If the council approves the ordinance, it would go into effect in 30 days, Trapani said.
The meeting is at 5 p.m. Tuesday, livestreamed on the city’s website.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
