Staff Report
City Council
Item No. 3.J
Meeting Date: October 22, 2025
From: Andrew Firestine, AICP, Director of Community and Economic Development
Title: Amendment to Master Schedule of User and Regulatory Fees - Establishing Fees for the Review of Cannabis Odor Control Plans and the Annual Certification of a Cannabis Odor Control Plan RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt by resolution an amendment to the City’s master schedule of user and regulatory fees a fee for the review of a cannabis odor control plan and the annual certification of a cannabis odor control plan.
BACKGROUND:
On September 24, 2025, the City Council conducted a public hearing on the first reading of an ordinance amending the City’s cannabis regulations. This ordinance requires cannabis businesses to submit an odor control plan as a condition of approval for a cannabis conditional use permit. It also applies the requirement retroactively to existing cannabis businesses through the annual renewal of a cannabis license. Cannabis businesses must also submit a certification of their odor control plan on an annual basis.
There is no fee currently established in the City’s adopted master schedule of user and regulatory fees for the review of an annual control plan or to process an annual certification.
DISCUSSION:
On April 23, 2025, the City Council conducted a public hearing and adopted by resolution an update to the City’s master schedule of user and regulatory fees. As was established in the prior staff report, all fees should bear a fair and reasonable relationship to the payer’s burdens on, or benefits received from, the activities and/or services provided by the City. The study prepared for the fee update examined multiple fee categories, including those for entitlement and post-entitlement application review and permitting review of new construction or modifications to existing structures, and analyzed the full cost of service against the City’s goals for cost recovery.
The review of an odor control plan was not contemplated when the fee update was prepared.
Nonetheless, a similar methodology can be applied to set the review fee for an odor control plan and the annual certification of an odor control plan. Any cost incurred by the City through a third-party review of an odor control plan together with the City staff time reviewing or administering the review of an odor control plan or performing related inspections on a cannabis business constitute the cost to the City to perform the review of an odor control plan.
Based on the complexity of the review and the specialized skillset and knowledge needed to determine whether an odor control plan appropriately and effectively proposes controls to mitigate cannabis odors, including a review of the odor emitting activities or processes and methods of odor control, staff recommends that odor control plans for cultivation and manufacturing be reviewed by a third-party. City staff would still incur time processing and issuing approval of an application and would still conduct inspections to verify the installation of any required cannabis odor control equipment as part of an odor control plan application for a cultivation or manufacturing use.
While staff had previously recommended that dispensaries with a consumption lounge be classified in the same category as cultivation and manufacturing, after further review and with input from local businesses and the Coachella Valley Cannabis Alliance Network (CVCAN), staff is recommending that the review of an odor control plan for a lounge be processed at a staff level. The City has received no cannabis odor complaints attributed to a lounge. Staff will also be receiving training from its third-party consultant, SCS Engineers, on the review of odor control plans and the inspection of cannabis businesses.
Staff is also recommending a decrease in the review time for a dispensary without a consumption lounge and testing labs from what was estimated in prior reports based on industry input and staff has adjusted the rates to reflect both the hourly rate for an associate planner responsible for administering the review of an odor control plan ($191/hr) and the rate for a code compliance officer II responsible for performing inspections ($135/hr) from the adopted April 23, 2025 master schedule of user and regulatory fees.
Collectively, the estimated labor time and cost of service are reflected in the table below:
Administration
and Review
(Planning Hrs)
Administration
Cost ($191/hr)
Inspection
(Code Hrs)
Inspection
Cost
($135/hr)
Total City
Cost
SCS
Engineers
Fee
Total
Fee
Odor Control Plan and
Amendments
(Cultivation,
Manufacturing)
2 $382 2 $270 $652 $3,500 $4,152
Odor Control Plan and
Amendments
(Dispensary with a
Consumption Lounge,
Distribution)
2 $382 2 $270 $652 0 $652
Odor Control Plan and
Amendments
(Dispensary, Testing
Lab)
1 $191 2 $270 $461 0 $461
Odor Control Plan
Annual Certification
0 $0 2 $270 $270 0 $270
A cannabis business with multiple licenses in a single premise may submit a combined odor control plan at the rate of the highest license (e.g. a business with a cultivation and distribution license would submit an odor control plan at the cultivation rate).
Staff has prepared an amendment to the fee resolution, provided as Attachment 1, to establish fees for the review of an odor control plan and an annual certification of an odor control plan. The fees do not exceed the reasonable cost of review of an odor control plan or annual certification.
FISCAL IMPACT:
DESCRIPTION GENERAL
LEDGER
ACCOUNT
CODES
PROJECT
CODE
AMOUNT ONE TIME or
ONGOING
2025-2026
Cannabis Odor
Control
Plan/Inspection
100-900-910-
911-6500-65XX N/A $80,000 ONGOING
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN:
F-17 – Review and update, as needed, our ordinances, policies, and practices regarding cannabis.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Attachment 1 – Amendment to fee resolution