March 15, 2022 City of Guadalupe Council Meeting Agenda Page 1 of 2 City of Guadalupe
AGENDA
Special Meeting of the Guadalupe City Council
Tuesday, March 15, 2022, at 5:00 pm
City Hall, 918 Obispo Street, Council Chambers
The City Council meeting will broadcast live on Charter Spectrum Cable Channel 20.
If you choose not to attend the City Council meeting but wish to make a comment during oral communications or on a specific agenda item, please submit via email to [email protected] no later than 1:00 pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Please be advised that, pursuant to State Law, any member of the public may address the City Council concerning any item on the Agenda, before or during Council consideration of that item. If you wish to speak on any item on the agenda, including any item on the Consent Calendar or the Ceremonial Calendar, please submit a speaker request form for that item. If you wish to speak on a matter that is not on the agenda, please do so during the Community Participation Forum.
The Agenda and related Staff reports are available on the City’s website: www.ci.guadalupe.ca.us Friday before Council meeting.
Any documents produced by the City and distributed to a majority of the City Council regarding any item on this agenda will be made available the Friday before Council meetings at the Administration Office at City Hall 918 Obispo Street, Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm, and also posted 72 hours prior to the meeting. The City may charge customary photocopying charges for copies of such documents. Any documents distributed to a majority of the City Council regarding any item on this agenda less than 72 hours before the meeting will be made available for inspection at the meeting and will be posted on the City’s website and made available for inspection the day after the meeting at the Administrator Office at City Hall 918 Obispo Street, Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, including review of the Agenda and related documents, please contact the Administration Office at (805) 356.3891 at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. This will allow time for the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting.
1. ROLL CALL:
Council Member Liliana Cardenas
Council Member Gilbert Robles
Council Member Eugene Costa Jr.
Mayor Pro Tempore Tony Ramirez
Mayor Ariston Julian
2. MOMENT OF SILENCE
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
March 15, 2022 City of Guadalupe Council Meeting Agenda Page 2 of 2
4. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION FORUM
Each person will be limited to a discussion of three (3) minutes or as directed by the Mayor. Pursuant to provisions of the Brown Act, no action may be taken on these matters unless they are listed on the agenda, or unless certain emergency or special circumstances exist. City Council may direct staff to investigate and/or schedule certain matters for consideration at a future City Council meeting.
REGULAR BUSINESS
5. Commercial Cannabis Business Permit Application Interviews.
Written Report: Todd Bodem, City Administrator
Recommendation: That the City Council:
1) Receive a presentation from the one (1) cultivation-processing commercial cannabis business permit applicant, and the five (5) retail commercial cannabis business permit applicants; and 2) Authorize the one (1) cultivation-processing commercial cannabis business permit applicant to continue in the process and apply for a conditional use permit for the proposed business location, or reject the application; and
3) Continue deliberations of the five (5) retail commercial cannabis permit applications to a future meeting so that the confidential scoresheets and non-confidential portions of the applicants’ applications can be publicly released and considered by the Council during itsfuture deliberations.
6. ADJOURNMENT
I hereby certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing agenda was posted on the City Hall display case and website not less than 24 hours prior to the meeting. Dated this 11th day of March 2022.
_____________________________________
Todd Bodem, City Administrator
Todd Bodem
Agenda Item No. 5
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GUADALUPE
Agenda of March 15, 2022
___________________________________
Prepared by:
Todd Bodem, City Administrator
SUBJECT: Commercial Cannabis Business Permit Application Interviews RECOMMENDATION:
1) Receive a presentation from the one (1) cultivation-processing commercial cannabis business permit applicant, and the five (5) retail commercial cannabis business permit applicants; and 2) Authorize the one (1) cultivation-processing commercial cannabis business permit applicant to continue in the process and apply for a conditional use permit for the proposed business location, or reject the application; and
3) Continue deliberations on the five (5) retail commercial cannabis business permit applications to a future meeting so that the confidential scoresheets and non-confidential portions of the applicants’ applications can be publicly released and considered by the Council during its future deliberations.
BACKGROUND:
The City of Guadalupe received one (1) cultivation-processing commercial cannabis business (CCB) permit application and five (5) commercial CCB permit applications that have all successfully completed Phase II (APPLICATION EVALUATION AND REVIEW – 2500 points) of the CCB permit application process, each having received a score of at least 90%. Pursuant to the City’s Application Procedures & Guidelines for Commercial Cannabis Business Permits, the applicants will be interviewed and evaluated by the City Council.
The applicants are required to have at least one owner present to participate in the interview. City staff has encouraged each applicant to have all owners present with a majority stake in the business which will benefit you during the interview. Furthermore, the City has scheduled the interviews so that the one (1) cultivation-processing applicant will be interviewed first, and thereafter, the retail business applicants will be interviewed based on their ranking with the lowest scoring applicant going first and the highest scoring applicants going last. The possible points are 2500 with the following points awarded below and by score.
Interview Schedule Phase III
Applicant Name Time
1 151 Obispo St. 5:05 pm to 5:25 pm
2 Guadalupe Community Project LLC dba Mr. Nice Guy 5:30 pm to 5:50 pm 3 SloCal Roots Management LLC dba Root One 5:55 pm to 6:15 pm 4 Guadalupe Erudite Ventures dba HerbNJoy 6:20 pm to 6:40 pm 5 LGBA Management LLC dba The Roots Dispensary 6:45 pm to 7:05 pm 6 BDSF 1 Holding LLC dba Element 7 Guadalupe 7:10 pm to 7:30 pm * 5-minute break in between each interview
DISCUSSION:
Interview Process: City staff has asked each applicant to prepare for the interview keeping the following in mind the following:
• The presentation will be limited to fifteen (15) minutes but the applicants were told to be prepared to respond to questions from the City Council which may extend the time by up to five (5) minutes for each Applicant. There will also be a five (5) minute break in between each interview of applicant set up and council deliberations. • Participation in the interview process is limited to those individuals listed as owners on page 3 of the Commercial Cannabis Business Initial Application.
• All presentations must be provided to the City Clerk or City Administrator on a flash drive prior to the start of the meeting so they can be loaded onto the computer. It is also recommended that they prepare fifteen (15) copies of the PowerPoint to be provided to the City Council and City Staff.
City of Guadalupe
Application Evaluation and Review Phase II
Applicant Name Proposed Address
License
Type
Point
Possible
Points
Awarded Score
1 151 Obispo St. 151 Obispo St. C.P. 2,500 2,435 97.40% 1 BDSF 1 Holdings LLC dba Element 7 Guadalupe 859 Guadalupe St Retail 2,500 2,431 97.24% 2 LGBA Management LLC dba The Roots Dispensary 813 Guadalupe St Retail 2,500 2,428 97.12% 3 Guadalupe Erudite Ventures dba HerbNJoy 910 Guadalupe St Retail 2,500 2,425 97.00% 4 SloCal Roots Management LLC dba Root One 928 Guadalupe St Retail 2,500 2,270 90.80% 5 Guadalupe Community Project LLC dba Mr. Nice
Guy 823-825 Guadalupe St Retail 2,500 2,263 90.52%
• The interview phase of the selection process is an opportunity for the City Council to here directly from the business owners and to address any issues or concerns presented during the interview before making a final decision. The applicant must be prepared to answer questions regarding:
1. Business Plan
2. Labor, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan
3. Safety Plan
4. Security Plan
5. Qualifications of Owners
6. Neighborhood Compatibility Plan
7. Community Benefit and Investment Plan
8. Proposed Location
Community Feedback: Pursuant to Guadalupe Municipal Code section 9.22.140, a public (community) meeting was held (on February 16, 2022) to solicit community feedback about the proposed locations for the six (6) commercial cannabis businesses. Consistent with this section, notice of this meeting was mailed to all property owners within 300 feet of any of the proposed locations as well as posted on the City’s website and in three places in the City.
Section 9.22.140 requires that the City Administrator prepare a report with findings and recommendations for consideration by the City Council, which must include a summary of any concerns that were voiced by the community at the public meeting. The City Administrator has decided not to make any findings or recommendations with respect to the CCB permit applicants other than to recommend that the cultivation-processing CCB permit applicant be authorized to continue in the process, and that at least one of the retail CCB permit applicants should eventually be approved to continue in the process (after further deliberations at a future meeting); however, the City Administrator is providing a summary of the concerns voiced by the community at the February 16th public meeting.
This summary is attached to this report as Attachment No. 1. Briefly, other than concerns about the cultivation-processing project proposed for 151 Obispo St., none of the concerns voiced by the community at this meeting were about any specific locations for the proposed retail cannabis businesses.
With respect to the proposed retail businesses, some members of the public voiced opposition to having any cannabis businesses in the City for a variety of reasons, including moral/principle-based opposition to cannabis in general, and also, based on the fact that illegal cannabis operations have reduced profitability of cannabis businesses which has resulted in a reduction of tax revenues (so the City will not receive as much revenue as it is anticipating). Some said that all five of the proposed retail businesses should be authorized by the Council, whereas others believed that the Council should limit the number of retail businesses to only one or two such businesses. The concerns voiced about the cultivationprocessing project proposed for 151 Obispo St. mostly concerned the possibility of noxious/excessive odors affecting nearby properties.
In addition, City staff has, periodically, received communications from members of the public concerning one or more of the applicants or otherwise expressing their opinions regarding them or cannabis in general. Attached to this report as Attachment No. 2 are all of these communications received by the City.
Staff Recommendation: As indicated above, staff is recommending that the City Council make a decision at tonight’s meeting to either reject the application for the cultivation-processing CCB permit or authorize the applicant to continue in the process by applying for a conditional use permit. Staff is basing this recommendation on the fact that there is only the one (1) cultivation-processing CCB permit application. Any concerns about the potentially adverse impacts of this particular busines can and will be adequately addressed and considered as part of the conditional use permit process.
The situation is different with the retail cannabis businesses. Since there are five (5) retail CCB permit applicants, and because the scoresheets have not been provided to the Council or released to the public (nor have the actual application materials been provided to the Council or to the public at this time), staff believes that the City Council (and the public) would benefit from having these additional materials prior to the Council making its decision(s) concerning the applications. The scoresheets, in particular, have not been released publicly because they could provide a competitive (and unfair) advantage to one or more of the applicants, so in the interest of providing all applicants astransparent and as fair a process as possible, the scoresheets will not be released until after the Council has completed its interviews. The Council could not be provided the scoresheets unless they were also provided to the public at the same time since that would have been a violation of the Brown Act. For these reasons, staff is recommending that the Council continue its deliberations on the retail CCB permit applications at a future meeting to be decided by the Council at which it can make its decision(s) (or continue its deliberations to another meeting).
Future Steps
After the City Council has made its final decisions as to which, if any, of the retail CCB permit applicants will be authorized to move forward in the process and apply for a condition use permit, City staff will also commence negotiations concerning the Community Benefit Agreement with the City setting forth the terms and conditions under which the cannabis facility will operate that are in addition to the requirements of Chapter 9.22.37.C, including, but not limited to community benefits such as public outreach and education, community service, payment of fees and other charges as mutually agreed, and such other terms and conditions that will protect and promote the public health, safety and welfare.
It shall be very important for each applicant to strategically understand the Council Policy direction on reaching its economic incentive goals related to the community benefit when negotiating it with the City Administrator. In addition, any community benefits that a commercial cannabis business agrees to provide shall be incorporated into the terms and conditions under which the commercial cannabis business will operate with the City of Guadalupe’s approval, if and when a Community Benefit Agreement is executed. Upon issuance of a conditional use permit for the CCB location and successfully completing negotiations for and entering into a Community Benefit Agreement, the Applicant will then be issued a commercial cannabis business permit and authorized to proceed to apply for a business license and any other ministerial approvals that may be required (e.g., building permits).
Note: Being awarded a CCB does not constitute a land use entitlement and does not waive or remove the requirements of applying for and receiving permits for all construction including: electrical, plumbing, fire, Planning Department permits or reviews, and any other permits, licenses, or reviews as deemed necessary by the relevant departments or governmental entities in charge of said permits. 1 GUADALUPE NOTES:
PUBLIC MEETING - February 16, 2022
Approximately 45 attendees. The first few speakers were not recorded by name – their names are included in the sign in sheets.
FIRST SPEAKERS:
• Product price is dropping. Tough industry, tax revenue may not be what was expected • Processing plants may produce odor
• Pesticide use may be an issue
• The number of dispensaries should be carefully considered Garrett:
• Concern over smell of processing
• Active use of processing plant can cause traffic issues (congestion) • Security may be an issue
• The number of dispensaries allowed should be carefully considered • Retail cannabis can create an unsafe environment
Melanie:
• Questions regarding what processing entails. Staff indicated that it included primarily trimming, drying and packaging
• One (1) dispensary is ok
Rosa:
• Guadalupe used to be a vibrant town
• Activity is good for the City
• Allow all to locate here
Jaime:
• Supports having at least one dispensary
• This is an undeveloped beach community – it has potential ! • Cannabis operations and operators provide $$ for youth needs • Supports 928 Guadalupe
Joe:
• Pastor
• Cannabis has negative impact on the community. Bad influence and bad for image • Crime increases
• Sets us back.
ATTACHMENT 1
2 Shanda:
• Supports
• CBD is good for her health issues
Javier:
• Works in the industry
• Will increase property values by improving buildings
• Increased tourism
• Will make buildings safer (retrofit)
• Supports 813 Guadalupe and their commitment to well-being Mike:
• Owns 928 ?
• Dislikes alcohol
• Vineyards should be hidden
• All six applicants should be allowed to go to CUP
Romero:
• Has roots in the community
• Should be able to get the product in Guadalupe
Amy:
• Retail is good
• No preference on location
• Control number of dispensaries
Angelique:
• Drives to Lompoc for product
• Lives in Santa Maria
• Has medical needs
• Supports 813 Guadalupe
Francisco:
• Need multiple dispensaries
• Happening everywhere
Mike:
• Applicant (Mr. Nice Guy)
• Supports all dispensaries
3 Ken:
• Applicant 823 – 825
• Guadalupe needs capital infusion
• The renovations will improve the buildings downtown
• Allow all
• 100,000 persons in Santa Maria – no dispensaries
Richard:
• On Oxicontin for 14 years
• CBD helped him to get off
Austin:
• CBD helped him sleep and withdraw
Adam:
• Has to travel too far to purchase product. 20 miles each way.
Joseph:
• In favor of 151 Obispo
BREAK:
Garrett:
• 1 or 2 may be successful
• Parking may be an issue and should be evaluated
Marshall:
• In favor of 1 or 2 to dip toe into the water
• Should be in a location not visible to Main Street
• Not in a prominent location
Rosa:
• In favor of Mr. Nice Guy
• All should be allowed
• Her building has a big parking lot
4 Adam:
• Applicant 928 Guadalupe
• 12 parking spots
• Is (or will be ?) earthquake retrofit
• Has ingress and egress
• Non-Guadalupe shoppers will come to town
• Company (and industry) make contributions to community Carmen:
• Concern over processing plant
Mike:
• Large cities can accommodate specialty districts
• 5 dispensaries on Guadalupe will dominate the character of the community Edward:
• Supports processing
• May or may not be odor issue – give them a chance
• Jobs creation
ATTACHMENT 2