Fresno to allow for more weed shops. City Council expands business licenses on 4-3 vote

Fresno may be seeing more weed dispensaries in the near future, following a resolution that passed through the City Council on Thursday.

Put forth by the council’s cannabis subcommittee (members Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza and Mike Karbassi), the resolution called to increase the number of retail business licenses, as allowed by city code, from 14 to 21.

It passed Thursday by a 4-3 vote with Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld, Luis Chavez and Karbassi voting no.

Chavez said he had heard concerns from his constituents and that some of those applying for the licenses in his district had clearly not read the requirements.

The city will now allow for up to three recreational cannabis sellers in each of the city’s seven districts. Previously, the code called for two.

“I would characterize this expansion as bringing Fresno’s cannabis market into the 21st century,” Esparza said, prior to the vote.

“The market is already there.”

That’s evident in the number of businesses that applied for licenses.

Seventy-five applicants made it to the second phase of the city’s application process, with another 20 competing under the equity clause for owners with previous cannabis convictions, former foster youth and veterans or those coming from low-income communities.

These are legal businesses that are doing everything that’s being asked of them, said Scott Miller, CEO of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, who spoke in favor of the resolution at Thursday’s council meeting. They have been waiting a long time for the application process to play out and some are taking on massive costs, even paying leases on yet-to-be used buildings, he said on Wednesday.

The chamber wrote a letter to the city, encouraging the additional licenses. The original code allows for the city to grow out to 21 licenses. This would just push up that timeline and consolidate efforts by using the current applications, Miller said.

That’s a benefit for the city and the businesses, many of whom are chamber members.

“It was supposed to happen a long time ago. Why spend all that money again in a year?”Miller said.

And at 21 licenses, Fresno would still have fewer dispensaries per capita than other cities that allow for recreational cannabis. By Esparza’s calculations the city would have .39 cannabis retailers per 10,000 residents.

According to the chamber’s count, if all the licenses are awarded Fresno will have two dispensaries for every 50,000 resident. That’s well below cities like Long Beach (3.4 per 50,000), Los Angeles (5 per 50,000) and Santa Cruz (7.7 per 50,000).

And unlike Fresno’s liquor stores, the dispensaries will be evenly distributed throughout the city. There is an average of one liquor store per 1,000 residents in Fresno, though some ZIP codes in southwest push that ratio as high as one per 500 residents.

“I am very sensitive to those types of concerns,” Esparza said.

According to the city’s revised timeline, the application process should be completed by mid-August. The city could see retail operations open by mid-December.

This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.