Correction: The Costa Mesa Planning Commission is the last stop for cannabis shop permits, unless they are appealed to the City Council. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the approval process.
Costa Mesa officials are about to take up the first two proposals from a deluge of applications for opening retail cannabis shops.
A storefront proposed on Harbor Boulevard and one on Newport Boulevard – the streets where nearly two-thirds of the 65 proposed businesses would be located – will go before the city’s Planning Commission Monday. If they’re approved there, as city staff recommend, they’re good to go, unless someone appeals the decision within seven days.
Unlike Santa Ana (previously the only Orange County city to allow cannabis shops), Costa Mesa doesn’t have a cap on how many permits it may grant – Santa Ana has a maximum of 30.
Also unlike its neighbor, which relegates pot shops to mostly out-of-the-way industrial areas, Costa Mesa’s newest business ventures can open on any commercially zoned parcel.
That will make it easier for customers to find cannabis stores that eventually open in the city, and it could bring a jolt of new investment to some run-down properties, said Jim Fitzpatrick, a member of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce’s cannabis task force and a land use consultant on nine of the applications pending with the city.
“A lot of these projects were like 50-year-old deferred maintenance properties that nothing was going to come and revitalize them,” Fitzpatrick said.
Up for consideration Monday are Cannabis Culture Club, on Newport Boulevard south of Wilson Street, and 420 Central, on Harbor Boulevard south of West Bay Street. Both would sell pre-packaged cannabis flower, edibles, extracts and related items, and they would follow detailed regulations that forbid on-site consumption and require ID checks for customers and security plans that include a 24-hour guard on duty.
The city wrote its regulations to ensure the stores are safe and discreet, Costa Mesa Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds said – so no flashing neon signs or customers loitering outside. The Harbor Boulevard location is in the district she represents.
Some residents she’s heard from have fears about the kind of clientele cannabis stores might attract, she said, but “I think when people hear all of the different requirements and especially the security requirements, that alleviates a lot of concerns.”
As of Friday, only one objection, from the manager of a pharmacy near the Harbor Boulevard site, was included with the Planning Commission’s materials on the proposed stores. And Reynolds said she hasn’t heard too many comments either for or against the new shops, but it may be that few residents are aware the applications are moving along.
She’s encouraged would-be store operators to reach out to the neighborhood before it’s time for a hearing on their permit request, she said. “I think what nobody wants is to be surprised and worried when it’s too late to provide important information about potential negative impacts.”
One reason people may not remember that cannabis shops are coming is that it’s been almost two years since Costa Mesa voters approved the ballot measure that allowed the stores and set a range for how much tax the city can charge on sales (it’s currently at 7%).
Even if the city grants the first permits soon, it could take months for proprietors to build out their storefronts and open their doors, but that doesn’t mean money isn’t already rolling in from cannabis.
Fitzpatrick said entrepreneurs have paid tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in application fees to the city, and they had to secure a location to even apply, so some are paying rent on an empty space.
He’d like to see the city speed up the process, but Reynolds said they’ve already dedicated several planning staff to cannabis paperwork and the city is also busy with housing plans right now.
While more than five dozen shops might seem like way too much of a good thing, Reynolds and Fitzpatrick both said the market is expected to sort itself out. Some applicants may see their funding fizzle out before they cross the finish line, and if too many stores open in the same area, some probably won’t last.
“I think by the combination of market forces, the pure economics of the deal, not all will get to open – and may the best operator win,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission meets at 6 p.m. Monday, June 13, in the council chambers at Costa Mesa City Hall, 77 Fair Drive. The meetings also are streamed live on the city’s YouTube channel.
