Two pot shop applications not allowed for same Kelowna location
KELOWNA - Not all of the 41 applications for cannabis retail shops that were filed with the City of Kelowna before Christmas will make it to public hearing.
“We’re up to between 36 and 38 that will get a final review,” Community Planning Department manager Ryan Smith told iNFOnews.ca. “There were a few applications that didn’t go ahead for whatever reason - whether they were incomplete or where they made two applications on the same property.”
In that case, the owner and an authorized second party both applied for the same location in an apparent effort to improve their chance of getting approved. Since the city doesn’t process dual applications for other re-zonings, it was not about to do so for this one.
“We’re evaluating all the applications over the next few weeks,” Smith said. “Once that’s been done, we may need to have some lotteries if there are applications that rank closely or are in the same area. Those that qualify to move forward to the rezoning process we’ll move forward to the rezoning process. You’ll probably see that start to occur in late February, March or April.”
The city set up a matrix to rank the applications to help determine which should proceed first.
As for clustering, there are a few sites in close proximity to each other. The full list of the first 31 applications is available on the city’s website.
It includes three applications in the 1600 block of Pandosy Street between Leon and Lawrence Avenues. There are three applications for Rutland Court and one for Old Vernon Road, all near the Sexsmith/Old Vernon Road intersection with Highway 97.
Three applications are in the 500 block of Bernard Avenue between Ellis and St. Paul Streets, with another one at 1583-93 Ellis St. — only 140 metres away. Two in the 1300 block of St. Paul Street near Cawston Avenue are about 500 metres from Bernard Avenue.
The applicants that didn’t make the cut for a rezoning hearing still had to pay $1,000. Those that go to rezoning will have to pay about $10,000 plus another roughly $10,000 for a business licence if the rezoning is approved.
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