The City of Santa Rosa’s Comprehensive Cannabis Ordinance passed unanimously on December 19, 2017 and goes into effect this Friday, January 19, 2018.
Santa Rosa Cannabis Ordinance Highlights
The City will now permit both adult use and medical use cannabis businesses and will consider applications that include on-site cannabis consumption and special events. Santa Rosa will accept permit applications for the following commercial cannabis uses:
- Cultivation, Indoor and Mixed Light
- Manufacturing, Level 1 (Non-Volatile)
- Manufacturing, Level 2 (Volatile)
- Distribution
- Testing Laboratory
- Microbusiness
- Retail Dispensary and Delivery (Not Delivery-Only)
Cannabis Retail Dispensary and Cannabis Delivery Applications
Retail Dispensary and Delivery will now be a permit-eligible use in the City of Santa Rosa. Note that Delivery will only be permit-eligible when ancillary to a brick-and-mortar cannabis retail dispensary. Each cannabis retail establishment is subject to a 600-foot setback to a school and to any other cannabis retail establishment.
Although the City’s Ordinance goes into effect on January 19, 2018, the application process for Retail Dispensary and Microbusiness uses is still under review. At the City’s Cannabis Policy Subcommittee meeting on January 11, the City stated that it will accept pre-applications in late-January and into February, and will then accept complete cannabis retail applications in March (specific dates remain uncertain).
The City is likely to set aside a two-week window for complete application submittal in March. Each application will then be subjected to a “completeness review.” The City will then determine whether applications comply with the 600′ setbacks. If multiple applicants apply for spaces within a 600-foot buffer, these applications will likely be subject to a merit-based ranking process.
Please note that because this information about the application process was gleaned from a Subcommittee Meeting and is not yet definitively established, it is subject to change at any time. For the most detailed and up-to-date information about the City of Santa Rosa’s Comprehensive Cannabis Ordinance, please contact an attorney at Rogoway Law Group.
