Maple Ridge will need to make some zoning bylaw changes to take economic advantage of legalized marijuana, say city councillors.
Recreational marijuana will become legal in Canada on Oct. 17, and three days later municipal elections will be held in B.C. The new council in Maple Ridge will need to take a fast look at its land use bylaws, said Couns. Gordy Robson and Craig Speirs.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Maple Ridge politicos were apprised of a B.C. government decision that would allow cities to prohibit industrial grow-ops on farmland.
The Ministry of Agriculture has ruled local governments can prohibit cannabis production in the ALR within a city, unless it is grown in ways that preserve the productive capacity of the agricultural land. That would mean no “cement-based, industrial-style, cannabis production bunkers on ALR land,”
However, pot cannot be prohibited if grown lawfully in an open field, in a soil based structure, in a structure that was under construction or fully built by July 13, or in an existing licensed operation.
Speirs, who announced this week that he will seek the mayoralty in the upcoming municipal elections, noted the city has a policy that does not allow grows in the industrial area. He said that is going to be a problem if the bunker-style cement floor is not permitted in the ALR.
“These are employee-rich kind of facilities, and if they can’t go on farmland, then they are going to have to go somewhere,” said Speirs. “This is going to have to be reviewed in the fullness of time.”
Speirs said regulating cannabis is going to be an immediate concern for the new council, and already retail operators have been lining up at city hall.
“I have no stigma – no prejudice against it,” he said. “This is big business that pays well. Let’s be welcoming.”
Speirs said there are already an estimated 600 grow ops in the city, many of them unregulated, and the money from these operations should stay in Maple Ridge after legalization.
He predicts the largest demographic to begin using will not be youth, but seniors.
“It’s a profitable industry, and it’s a health building industry,” he said.
Robson agreed that “bunker-style” grow-ops would be best in the industrial area, where operators could pay city property tax rates.
“We’re not getting our share of revenue from it,” Robson said.