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If you want to open a commercial cannabis business in Shasta Lake, it’s going to cost you.
Just how much will be hammered out at the next Shasta Lake City Council meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
A proposal outlined in a report by City Manager John Duckett pins an annual $518 permit application fee on all commercial marijuana businesses. Annual permit costs would range from between around $800 to almost $6,000 a year.
Those permits cover all sectors of the budding commercial cannabis industry except for volatile manufacturing processes, which are explicitly banned, Duckett said.
Different business types would have widely different regulatory fees. Transporters would pay $816 a year while retail outlets would pony up $5,445.
Those fees are based on the estimated costs of inspections, which must take place between two and 12 times a year, and enforcement, Duckett said.
The city would likely contract with SCI Consultants to perform the inspections. The city retained the company after voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in November.
“SCI Consulting … performs regulatory compliance inspections in other jurisdictions within California,” he said.
The city may eventually take over the inspections, Duckett said.
Businesses may be responsible for other fees typically paid by all businesses, he said.
Cannabis businesses will also be required to provide information on their security systems such as cameras, alarms (including panic buttons), bulletproof windows, dyes, tracking systems, guards and its method of destroying unused cannabis, Duckett wrote.
All applications would also need to identify all stakeholders who own more than 10 percent of the business, Duckett wrote.
Shasta Lake is the only city between Siskiyou County and the Sacramento area with medical marijuana dispensaries. Since the passage of uniform regulations with the Medical Marijuana Regulatory and Safety Act in 2015 and Proposition 64 in 2016, the city has eyed the marijuana industry as a way to bring new jobs to the town.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the council chambers, 4488 Red Bluff St., on Tuesday.
Link – Redding.com
