In a Feb. 8 hearing, La Mesa City Council voted 3-2 to uphold an October 2021 appeal against a proposed marijuana dispensary filed by Communities Against Substance Abuse Executive Director Dana Stevens.
Stevens and others claim the storefront “violates the purpose of City Code Chapter 24.23 to limit impacts on neighborhoods” and is incompatible with the residential character of the location.
Director of Community Development Kerry Kusiak said the project site at 7901 Hillside Drive is technically in compliance with city law.
City staff “recommends council deny the appeal and uphold approval of the marijuana dispensary,” Kusiak said.
Measure U, passed by La Mesa voters in 2016, says dispensaries must maintain a minimum 1,000 feet separation from licensed childcare centers, playgrounds, minor oriented facilities, other dispensaries and schools. An overview map provided by Kusiak showed the storefront’s proposed entrance would sit 1,950 feet away from Christ Lutheran church and school and 1,191 feet from St. Martin of Tours church and school.
However, Stevens said the layout of the proposed Urbn Leaf facility would allow for access from multiple doors. The El Cajon Boulevard entrance, used for planning purposes, is within legal limits yet the more accessible entry point is on residential Hillside Drive.
“This use clearly is incompatible with residential uses in this same vicinity,” and would violate the minimum separation from existing marijuana shops Stevens said, as it is easily accessible by footpaths rather than the circuitous route proposed by Urbn Leaf planners on paper.
Stevens also said the business is “inconsistent with the general plan that specifies a business must introduce an uncommon retail good” when it would be the eighteenth retail marijuana store in La Mesa and just 200 feet from other retail marijuana shops separated by a retaining wall.
Factoring in existing footpaths, the new building would be located less than 240 feet from an existing marijuana retail store “as the crow flies” and within one block of a K-12 school, Stevens said.
City Council Members Laura Lothian and Jack Shu both said they had visited the neighborhood in person. Shu said he easily walked from the existing Cookies dispensary to the proposed Urbn Leaf location.
While the new Urbn Leaf store would be fewer than 1,000 feet away from the neighboring Cookies cannabis store if accessed through the shortest path possible, a pathway that forces shoppers to circle around the building for entry puts the shop more than 1,000 feet away from the preexisting store, Urbn Leaf consultant Phil Rath said.
“I don’t think we’re following the spirit of the law and this site is too close to another site,” Shu said.
Rath said “the building itself is completely legal for any business whether it is a pizzeria or a cannabis store,” but confirmed Stevens is fundamentally correct in her assessment of where traffic would enter and how customers could access the facility.
“Even if it is legal, it doesn’t seem advisable,” Lothian said.
During time for public comments, a dozen speakers called in with support for the appeal, including Community Action Service Advocacy Public Health Advocate Jean Duffy who said she is concerned that the city is giving outside business owners the ability to open up shop in La Mesa for profits that do not benefit the community.
La Mesa Community Police Oversight Board Chair Janet Castanos said it is important the city avoid any precedent of allowing a cannabis business in a primarily residential neighborhood.
“Please do not allow cannabis companies to play games— the 1,000 foot limit was an attempt to limit the number of dispensaries in the city. Quality of life is at stake here,” Castanos said.
The case “clearly manipulates the 1,000 foot rule and could lead to a dispensary by a kids’ school,” La Mesa Steering Committee member Craig Reed said.
Resident Ernie Valdez called on City Council to seek out future business development that “helps youth or senior citizens” instead of marijuana dispensaries for potential revenue.
“The community is speaking to you and you represent the people of La Mesa, not the dispensaries. Keep that in mind,” Valdez said.
Residents object to the image of La Mesa as a “drug destination with one pot shop for every 3,396 people in the city while the city of San Diego is limited to one shop for every 38,526 residents,” Stevens said.
City Council member Colin Parent probed possible outcomes of voting for or against the appeal. City Attorney Glenn Sabine said the city has “very little discretion to deny the project” under Measure U and doing so could potentially lead to a lawsuit.
City Council member Bill Baber, who is an attorney by trade but does not work as such for the city, drilled into whether anything in the plan was legally amiss and confirmed the building can be built within the letter of the law.
Shu moved to approve the appeal and deny the project. Parent and Baber voted against the appeal; Mayor Mark Arapostathis, Lothian and Shu all voted in favor of the appeal and against the project moving forward.
Urbn Leaf’s spokesperson Kelly Blake later said the company was “extremely disappointed by the council’s decision” and are currently considering all their options.”
