Burnaby’s first two pot shop applications are officially making their way to city council.
The stores are proposed for the Kings Crossing development in Edmonds and the Old Orchard Shopping Centre in the Metrotown area. If approved, the stores could be the first government-run pot shops in Metro Vancouver.
To approve the stores, council will need to approve zoning amendments for the properties. Those rezoning applications were initially submitted to the city in June 2019, according to a recent staff report.
Ahead of approving those zoning amendments, however, council is looking to approve its policy on how it will regulate pot shops – a policy that comes nearly 20 months into legalization. But Mayor Mike Hurley said the late adoption isn’t a result of the city dragging its feet. Instead, he said the issue was that the city hadn’t received much in the way of interest.
“The thought was always to wait and get those up and running first and see how they operated, before we would enter the phase of allowing private pot shops,” Hurley said, noting the expectation was to have one government-run shop in each of the four town centres.
“I think we’ve all been surprised at how long that’s taken. We haven’t had any real inquiries (for government stores). So we haven’t been holding anything back; it’s just nothing’s come forward.”
The original intent was to see how the shops would impact their communities, but the city now has examples from communities around Canada to examine. With that in mind, Hurley said the city likely won’t turn down interested private pot shops – only none of those have come forward with applications, either, he said.
“We will be asking staff to bring forward reports on that, too, about where we would be at on the private side,” he said. “We weren’t going to do that until we’ve had some applications. … In most places, it’s all happened slower than anyone expected. Even the supply chain has happened slower than anyone has expected.”
According to a staff report on the new policy, there are 16 government pot shops and 228 private shops in the province, with no government shops and 34 private shops in Metro Vancouver.
Staff proposed the city create two new commercial zones, which would require applicants to go through the rezoning process – including public hearings – to open new shops. That would give council and the community more say on how many pot shops are approved and where.
