TITLE
Recommendation to refer to a Hearing Officer the business license application denial appeal by Seaside Medical Group Inc., to operate a medical marijuana business located at 1529 West Pacific Coast Highway. (District 1)
DISCUSSION
On August 16, 2017, the Department of Financial Management denied the business license application for Seaside Medical Group, Inc. (Seaside), to operate a medical cannabis dispensary at 1529 West Pacific Coast Highway (Attachment A), due to the proposed business location being within 1,000 feet of a public or private school, which is in violation of Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) Section 5.90.030 (Attachment B). On August 21, 2017, Seaside filed an appeal of the business license application denial (Attachment C). The appeal was filed for the following stated reasons:
1. A claim that the location does not violate the 1,000-foot school buffer requirement, based on a Google map distance calculation;
2. A claim that the location was approved by the City on June 1, 2017.
With regard to the buffer distance measurement, the property line of the proposed dispensary at 1529 West Pacific Coast Highway is 975 feet away from the closest property line of SIATech Charter School, which violates the 1,000-foot minimum school buffer requirement. This measurement is calculated using the methodology required by the LBMC, not the arbitrary set of points referenced in the appeal. With regard to the claimed approval, the City did provide preliminary confirmation of the proposed location in a letter dated June 1, 2017, but the letter stated that the proposed location was “currently” in compliance with buffer distances and that buffers would be revisited through a secondary review after July 24, 2017. The secondary review followed a public comment period of the buffer map, during which time SIATech Charter School, which was in existence at the time of Seaside’s application submission, was identified and added to the buffer map. All applicant...
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