The City of Delta could be getting its first legal cannabis store.
Council on Monday (June 14) will discuss a staff recommendation to grant preliminary approval for a rezoning application to open a cannabis dispensary at 616 Chester Road, located on Annacis Island.
If granted preliminary approval, the application would go to a public hearing.
The operation would be within a 3,638-square-foot portion of an existing multi-tenant industrial building.
The retail portion would be in a 1,001-square-foot storefront.
The property is currently zoned medium impact industrial.
The proposed cannabis dispensary would be operated by Seed & Stone, a non-medical cannabis retailer which currently operates one store in Chilliwack and is expanding to Victoria and elsewhere in B.C.
A Delta staff report notes that the owner has more than 20 years of experience in retail including managing liquor stores.
The report also notes that in order to comply with zoning requirements and implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) suggestions from Delta Police, the applicant is proposing to undertake minor site improvements.
Prior to the legalization of cannabis in Canada in 2018, city council approved a bylaw prohibiting cannabis stories in all zones, but kept the door open to consider them on a case-by-case basis.
The idea was to restrict any new potential cannabis businesses to industrial zones.
Council previously approved two rezoning applications to allow cannabis production facilities in industrial areas, also considered on a case-by-case basis.
The report adds Seed & Stone would be required to purchase cannabis products directly from the provincial government's distribution branch.
B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth held a news conference this week to plead with British Columbians to avoid buying illegal cannabis.
He said the province recently collaborated with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, as well as the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health, to test 20 samples of seized illegal cannabis for contaminants.
He said tests showed traces of 24 different kinds of bacteria, as well as fungi and heavy metals, and almost all samples included at least one of the contaminants.
