Long Beach may expand its “Green Zone”—the area where cannabis businesses are permitted—after cannabis equity applicants expressed difficulty in finding viable properties within the current zone.
“Without an expanded Green Zone, it is possible some equity applicants will find no viable properties to conduct their cannabis business,” Cannabis Program Manager Emily Armstrong said. “Or they will experience significant delays due to the extended search for viable property.”
The Green Zone makes up portions of Long Beach that avoid “buffer zones” around places that children and youth frequent, such as schools, daycare centers, parks, libraries, beaches and playgrounds.
“Properties that comply with all the current regulations are very limited in the city,” Armstrong said, noting that many commercial corridors aren’t accessible to cannabis businesses due to nearby buffers.
At its Tuesday, Oct. 12 meeting, city staff presented recommendations to the Long Beach City Council on ways they could enhance opportunities for cannabis equity applicants.
City staff recommendations included adjustments to several buffers, including:
- Reduction of school buffer zones from 1,000 feet to 600 feet
- Removal of park buffers zones, which are currently 600 feet
- Removal of a beach buffer zone, which is currently 1,000 feet
- Addition of a 600-foot buffer zone around playgrounds, which currently have no buffer zone
- Addition of a 600-foot buffer zone around community centers, which currently have no buffer zone
The proposed changes would increase the Green Zone by 3.1 square miles.
Armstrong said the addition provides “significantly more opportunity for equity applicants to find buyable properties.”
The staff proposal increases buffers around areas frequented by children, like playgrounds and community centers, but decreases the buffer around schools to adhere to the State minimum.
The City’s over 145 charter, public and private schools “severely limited the amount of available property,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said that existing protections could counter concerns over child exposure, such as age requirements to enter cannabis facilities, opaque exit packaging and the sale of pre-packaged products to reduce odors.
Dispensaries must still remain at least 1,000 feet away from each other.
Councilmember Mary Zendejas suggested increasing the buffer between dispensaries to 1,500 feet, though the move would decrease the amount of available space in the Green Zone.
Nonetheless, she offered a friendly motion to have city staff look at the feasibility of increasing the buffer zone.
Other council members probed a conversation about the density of dispensaries in council districts. Council Districts 5 and 9 have six dispensaries each, while other districts have none.
Councilmember Stacy Mungo-Flanigan pointed out that dispensaries are more plentiful in her district because she borders a city where cannabis sales are not permitted. The same is true of District 9, which borders Lakewood, where cannabis sales are banned.
“Almost three of my borders to other cities have dispensaries and have quite great volume because they’re not really competing for the Long Beach market,” Mungo-Flanigan said. “They’re really competing for the Orange County market or the Lakewood market or the Paramount market.”
The council is expected to pick up the conversation about dispensary density later this year once the Redistricting Commission comes back with its findings, as changing district boundaries could affect the conversation.
