California Cannabis Countdown: City of Redding

California has 58 counties and 482 incorporated cities across the state, each with the option to create its own rules or ban marijuana altogether. In this California Cannabis Countdown series, we cover who is banning cannabis, who is embracing cannabis (and how), and everyone in between. For each city and county, we’ll discuss its location, history with cannabis, current law, and proposed law to give you a clearer picture of where to locate your California cannabis business, how to keep it legal, and what you will and won’t be allowed to do.
Our last California Cannabis Countdown post was on the City of San Rafael, and before that City of Hayward, Alameda County, Oakland, San Francisco, Sonoma County, the City of Davis, the City of Santa Rosa, County and City of San Bernardino, Marin County, Nevada County, the City of Lynwood, the City of Coachella, Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Desert Hot Springs, Sonoma County, the City of Sacramento, the City of Berkeley, Calaveras County, Monterey County and the City of Emeryville.
Will the sun rise on cannabis in Redding?Today’s post is on the City of Redding.
Welcome to the California Cannabis Countdown.
Location. Redding is a City in Shasta County that lies along the Sacramento River (walk across it via the Sundial Bridge if you’re visiting). If you’re looking to gain some serious bar night trivia street cred, the city is named after Benjamin Bernard Redding, a Sacramento politician that purchased land for railroad companies quite some time ago.
History with Cannabis: Historically Redding has not been quick to embrace the commercial cannabis industry. The City allowed for medical cultivation for up to six plants as an accessory use to a private residence, but prohibited the operation of medical collectives or cooperatives. In December of 2106, the City Council passed a moratorium, keeping its cannabis bans in place as it contemplated the new regulatory landscape after the passage of the Adult Use Marijuana Act (AUMA). The City Council then held a number of public hearings in order to solicit public feedback on what its cannabis ordinance should look like if the City decided to regulate cannabis businesses. During this time of public hearings, the City’s cannabis moratorium was extended again in November of 2017. City staff have since published a proposed cannabis ordinance that the Planning Commission will review on February 13, 2018.
Proposed Cannabis Laws:  The proposed ordinance (“Ordinance”) is quite an impressive step for the City of Redding considering that an outright local ban has essentially been in place since the passage of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act local jurisdictions get to decide what types of cannabis businesses they’re going to authorize and that includes whether only medical cannabis businesses will be allowed. In many instances, we see circumspect jurisdictions begin by regulating medical cannabis commercial activities while prohibiting adult-use. That’s not the case with Redding’s Ordinance as it proposes to regulate medical and adult-use cannabis businesses. Here are some other highlights:
The City Manager can issue up to ten retail licenses. A retailer that holds both a medical and adult-use license shall be considered as one cannabis business;
Outdoor cultivation is prohibited;
There will be no cap on the number of indoor cultivators, manufacturers, distributors (including storage-only and transport-only distributors), testing laboratories, or deliverers of cannabis;
Retailers and delivery-only retailers can only operate between 8:00am and 8:00pm;
Microbusinesses and cannabis events are prohibited;
Volatile manufacturing is allowed, except the use of butane is prohibited;
The City Council has yet to establish its application fee; and
An applicant will have to disclose their financial assets, investors, loans, financial interest holders, and any gifts they may have received for the cannabis business.
Redding’s Ordinance is quite thorough, but it’s extremely important to note that it hasn’t passed yet. We’ve seen promising ordinances fall in the face of a small but vocal opposition before. If all goes well at the Planning Commission review on February 13, the Ordinance will be presented to the City Council on March 6, 2018. As someone who’s attended countless public hearings, I can’t stress enough the importance of showing up, so if you want to see Redding put an end to its cannabis prohibitionist streak, mark February 13th and March 6th on your calendar.


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