Successful appeals for Vancouver dispensaries at the Board of Variance also mean issues at city hall, where officials must now deal with incorporating dispensaries into a framework they’ve already been rejected from.
City communications coordinator Jason Watson said just because these businesses were successful in their appeals, doesn’t mean they’re exempt from the rules.
“Preliminary applications refused in October 2015 were evaluated against only three of the zoning requirements for this use,” Watson wrote. “Locations that successfully appeal this preliminary refusal to the Board of Variance must submit more detailed materials for full zoning review and community input. Applications that do not pass this full zoning review can be refused again.”
The appeals also mean two or more dispensaries, closer than 300 metres to one another, are now at the second stage in the city’s licensing process.
Eggs Canna Inc. (208 E 16th Ave), which had it’s application proceed to the second stage of the licensing process, and Greatful Med (211 E 16th Ave), which was successful in its appeal at a Board of Variance meeting, are right across the street from one another.
“The Zoning and Development By-law requires medical marijuana-related uses to locate at least 300m apart,” Watson said. “In the case of two or more development permit applications within 300m of each other, the director of planning can only issue a development permit to one applicant.”