Malibu City Council Considers Cannabis Outlets

BY BILL KOENEKER

Will the Malibu City Council allow pot pharmacies within the city limits? That is the question that may be answered next week when the council considers a recommendation from its planning commission calling for allowing three medical marijuana dispensaries.
The council had approved several moratoriums on the facilities when it was learned there were no specific provisions in the city’s zoning code for permitted uses of such dispensaries after two started doing business in Malibu.
Despite a staff recommendation to prohibit the pot pharmacies in Malibu, the planning commission recommended an ordinance conditionally permitting up to three dispensaries within the city at one time in any commercial zoning district, subject to specific conditions.
The staff planner has another suggestion if the council follows the planning panel's recommendation. “In order to facilitate the three dispensary limit and ensure that existing dispensaries are given priority to those three permits, staff recommended a provision requiring that existing medical marijuana dispensaries obtain a conditional use permit within 90 days of adoption of the ordinance,” wrote Kathleen Mallory, a contract planner for the city.
Mallory, still pushing for a prohibition, prepared an alternative ordinance for the council to consider prohibiting the use or banning any new dispensaries within the city.
Consequently, Mallory is presenting the council with two recommendations, the planning commission’s, or hers, to ban pot pharmacies.
During the planning commission hearings, several experts, an attorney and various patients and their families came to urge the council to allow the pharmacies to continue to operate in the city.