Second Malibu Pot Pharmacy Seeks Permit

• Needs MPC OK

BY BILL KOENEKER

The City of Malibu Planning Commission is being asked to approve the second pot pharmacy in the community at its regular meeting on May 5.
Green Angel Collective is seeking a conditional use permit in an existing commercial building at 21355 Pacific Coast Highway to operate a medical marijuana dispensary. The applicant is also seeking a variance to operate the facility within 1000 feet of a park.
Several months ago the commission gave its OK for a pot pharmacy located in mid Malibu.
Last summer, the city council adopted an ordinance to allow medical marijuana dispensaries as a conditionally permitted use in all commercial zones.
Previous to that, the municipality had enacted a moratorium, after it discovered there were two facilities in the city, PCH Collective and Green Angel, but that Malibu had no zoning regulations to deal with the stores.
The issue initially caused some debate when both the planning commission and the city council previously heard testimony whether to establish a law allowing such facilities and how many in the city could be allowed. No more than three in the city would be allowed, council members decided, and the procedure would include getting a CUP from the city. At the last minute, decision makers added a laundry list of locations near where the pot pharmacies would not be welcome, including schools, churches, parks and other locations.
This could provide an obstacle for Green Angel, except that the park, Las Flores Canyon Park, is tucked into the canyon over a ridgeline and not down the block a 1000 feet as would be the case in a conventional city with a street grid pattern. However, that determination will have to be made by the planning panel.