California Cannabis Countdown: The City of San Luis Obispo

SLO is thinking through its options for cannabis.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 marijuana 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 Redding, and before that the City of San Rafael, 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.
Today’s post is on the City of San Luis Obispo (not the County). We’ll provide an update on what the County is up to next week.
Welcome to the California Cannabis Countdown.
Location. San Luis Obispo (affectionately referred to as SLO) is a city in San Luis Obispo County and is home to California Polytechnic State University (well sort of, since Cal Poly’s campus sits just outside the City limits and is part of the County). SLO is located in California’s Central Coast at about the halfway point if you’re driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. If you need to spend the night or make a pit stop, check out the quirky Madonna Inn.
History with Cannabis: San Luis Obispo currently prohibits all commercial and industrial cannabis business activities. The City, like a many number of other California jurisdictions, enacted its ban prior to January 01, 2018 (SLO enacted its cannabis prohibition ordinance in March of 2017). The City’s prohibition wasn’t meant to be permanent as nearly sixty-eight percent of SLO voters approved the Adult-Use of Marijuana Act (a/k/a Prop 64). Instead, the purpose of the City’s ban was to act as a temporary stopgap while the City sought community feedback for a long-term cannabis solution. This “prohibit while we study the issue dance” is currently playing out throughout California. Since its moratorium, the City held a number of hearings and workshops in order to engage the community so that it could begin to develop a cannabis regulatory structure. To that end the City’s Community Development Director (CDD) prepared a report for the City Council to discuss today, February 20th.
Proposed Cannabis Laws: The CDD report is the first step in enacting a cannabis ordinance. When drafting the report, the CDD used community feedback and cannabis regulations in other jurisdictions as guideposts. The goal of the report is to propose an ordinance that will regulate the cannabis marketplace and that is acceptable to the City Council and the community. Here are some of the report’s highlights:
It authorizes both medical and adult-use cannabis activities.
Authorizes up to three retail licenses.
Delivery is allowed.
Outdoor cultivation is prohibited.
There will be three types of indoor cultivation license types: Special Cultivator (up to 5,000 square feet), Small Cultivator (up to 10,000 square feet), and Nursery (up to 10,000 square feet).
Special and Small cultivators can include processing.
There will be a citywide cultivation cap of 70,000 square feet.
Only non-volatile cannabis manufacturing is allowed.
Distribution and testing are allowed.
Onsite consumption and cannabis events are prohibited.
Applications would be reviewed and ranked by a third party consultant (the City is still working on a criteria for ranking applications).
The CDD asked whether cannabis products with high concentrations of THC should be banned.
The CDD asked whether persons under the age of 21 (regardless of medical recommendation) should be prohibited from dispensaries.
The CDD report is by no means a finished product, as further direction from the City Council and input from the community can drastically alter (for better or worse) what the final cannabis regulation will look like for SLO. If all goes well, the City will hold another hearing in front of the Planning Commission on March 28 and potentially adopt a resolution on May 01. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.


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