Costa Mesa pot shop proposal stemmed by commissioners in first denial of use permit
Plans for a cannabis dispensary on Costa Mesa’s Bristol Street were nipped in the bud Monday, after city commissioners sided with residents who claimed the shop wasn’t a good fit for the commercial space it sought to occupy.
A 7-0 vote Monday by the Planning Commission to deny a permit for CM Triangle Enterprise, LLC, to operate in a suite at 1072 Bristol St. marks the city’s first denial of a retail cannabis use permit since the panel began considering storefront applicants in June.
For the record:
12:33 p.m. Aug. 15, 2022An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Jerilyn Favia left a job in real estate to work in the cannabis industry. She formerly worked in the insurance field.
“My personal opinion is that the applicant chose the wrong location,” Planning Chair Byron de Arakal said. “I have real concerns about the level of activity and the level of traffic going in and out of the store; not that it’s going to be bad, but it’s going to be noticeably cheek to jowl against people’s backyards and their bedroom windows.”
A tight-knit group of residents living on Costa Mesa’s the Masters Circle, where homes back up to the parking lot of the Bristol Street property, expressed their opposition to the dispensary and the noise, traffic and loitering they felt it would engender.
The building is currently occupied by insurance agents, attorneys and other tenants who mainly operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, leaving the property vacant on weekends. By comparison, CM Triangle planned to operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, serving up to 300 customers daily.
“The storefront is 100 feet away from my property. My daughter’s bedroom overlooks the parking lot,” said Claudia Tebbs, who helped circulate a petition on change.org against the proposal.
Planning commissioners on Monday considered rules for retail marijuana businesses, but decided more work needs to be done. “There’s a lot to be learned here,” one member said.
“This is a cash business, and crime is up,” she continued. “A robbery attempt is likely, and if there is a robbery, they’re not going to run to the middle of Newport Boulevard or Bristol, they’re going to run into our backyards and through our properties.”
Sean Maddocks, a consultant representing CM Triangle Enterprise, described steps that would be taken to ensure safety and security, from 24-7 guards on the property to indoor and outdoor cameras with facial recognition and license plate reading capabilities. City staff had named more than 75 conditions that must be met for a permit to be approved.
Maddocks noted while the city established buffers prohibiting dispensaries from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, homeless shelters and other defined sensitive uses, no such provisions were made for residential areas.
“We’re in somebody’s backyard — you can’t change that. The city allows it and it’s approved by their municipal code and the ordinances,” he said. “[But] the concerns of the community are extremely important to the operators. They have to be good operators, or the city and the community will pull their licenses.”
Despite those assurances, a steady string of residents stood their collective ground, quoting portions of Costa Mesa’s land use plan and municipal code pertaining to unnecessary noise and respect for the quiet enjoyment of the surrounding neighborhood.
Some cited charts and studies finding transience and crime rates increased when dispensaries opened, a claim other speakers, mainly those who work in the industry, rebutted.
Owners with Culture Cannabis Club and 420 Central Newport Mesa pleaded their cases before planning commissioners this week, fielding questions about security, lighting and traffic.
“Some don’t have a problem with cannabis as a whole, but a problem with cannabis right there,” said Jerilyn Favia, a Costa Mesa resident who left the insurance field for a career in cannabis. “This attitude is discriminatory, prejudiced and wrong — I think we should be celebrated.”
Ultimately, commissioners decided to deny a conditional use permit, stating they could not make findings a dispensary would be compatible with developments in the same general area and not constitute a material detriment to nearby properties.
So far, eight retail dispensary projects have been approved by commissioners, including two additional pitches heard Monday, while more than 50 are waiting to be heard.
“These impacts are something you will have to contend with for the rest of your life,” said Commission Vice Chair Jon Zich said. “When this thing is built, is it something that adds to our community and does not have the kind of impacts somebody will have to endure for the rest of their life? This one just doesn’t get across that bar.”
Applicants are given seven days from a planning commission’s decision to file an appeal that would place the matter before the Costa Mesa City Council.
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