Amherstburg being 'proactive' to prepare for possible cannabis retail store

Amherstburg, Ont. is getting ready for a potential cannabis retail store in the next wave of licenses. 

Announced July 3, 50 more cannabis store licenses will be issued across the province, with 11 of those licenses available in the west region — an area including Chatham-Kent, Windsor-Essex and Sarnia-Lambton. 

At a special council meeting Monday, Amherstburg passed a cannabis retail nuisance bylaw unanimously, which allows the town some say in regulating any potential stores.

"Under the municipal act we can regulate nuisances," said manager of licensing and enforcement Nicole Rubli. "We're not able to do a licensing program."

The Cannabis License Act does not allow municipalities to designate cannabis retail space separate from general retail space, or have any official say in who receives a license — but the Act does allow municipalities the power to "prohibit and regulate with respect to public nuisances."

"We decided we would be proactive on regulating items like noise that would be associated, odour, outdoor illumination, loitering," said Rubli. "Those are the types of things we would want to ensure aren't happening."

Retail shop owners of any kind in Amherstburg also have to adhere to general regulations like traffic studies and proper parking allowances.

The motion passed unanimously but councillors faced a stalemate when discussing portions of the bylaw concerning parking spaces and traffic studies. 

Coun. Michael Prue said he was personally opposed to provisions which required any potential cannabis retail store to provide a traffic study satisfactory to the town, operate without sufficient on-site parking facilities and operate without site plan approval from the town in regards to concerns related to adequate on-site parking. 

"If it's a mom and pop store, and they want to turn it into a place that sells marijuana instead, it's already licensed, it's already commercial area, and we don't make anybody occupying a previously occupied store go through these kinds of hoops for parking and studies," said Prue. "[This would] dissuade people from coming here to do business in something that is now legal."

Council voted to remove the two parking-related provisions, but compromised by maintaining the bylaw's traffic study component, allowing the overall bylaw motion to pass unanimously.

"Whether we do something or not with it, we at least have a parking study done so that we can look at the potential impacts that may result from a retail cannabis establishment," said deputy mayor Leo Meloche.

"My argument was we have it for informational purposes, for future assessments or future decision-making."

Amherstburg wasn't eligible in December 2018 when the first round of licenses were issued, but have opted in for future stores. 

According to Rubli, public consultation in 2018 showed a "want in the community" for a cannabis retail store.