Good evening, and welcome to commit an ordinance public hearing. The time is 05:57. Today is the September 10. Welcome all. Madam clerk, please close the row.
Vice chairwoman Peterson. Present. Councilwoman Harris. Present. Councilman Vargas.
Present. Councilor Royas?
You have five present, you have a quorum.
Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, first item on the agenda, which is a continuance from last meeting.
Item number one is an ordinance and amendment of chapter 27 of the code of ordinances of the City Of Providence entitled the City Of Providence zoning ordinance approved 11/24/2014 as amended shall be to change articles twelve and fourteen relating to compassion centers.
Thank you. Do we have anybody that signed up to speak on this item? City sergeant, please, could you please bring forward the sign up sheet? Thank you. We have one person.
Michael Bell? Good evening....
Members of the committee. My name is Mike Bell. I'm a resident of Fox Point here in Providence. I wanna thank you for the amount of time and attention that you've given this particular issue, and I'm here to say that I'm in full support of the amended ordinance. I believe that the presence of cannabis retail establishments in the city will provide exciting new economic development opportunities as well as increased tax revenue for the city.
And I hope that you can vote and approve this ordinance out of the committee tonight. So thank you again for your time.
Thank you so much for your testimony. Do we have anybody else that would like to speak on this? I'll call on committee members. Councilman Vargas?
Thank you very much, sir. According to these ordinance, we've been working the city and all of us in several departments to make several changes to the zoning areas. And what we're trying to do is try to get the Sony where will be the best location for these type of stores or use or sales or different names. We understand we need that revenue. We understand that is everybody is going with the flow.
But I also understand and other people that they don't like this type of business, like MicroStigions. I always think about my constituents because those are the people who represent who I represent to. And I like that they removed C1, but they left C2 as mixed use commercial. And I do have a lot of properties in my district or where they are C2s. And it's only one special use in situ, but they don't have the special use in the other warning type that we have that we don't know yet how we're going to develop this kind.
I was looking to have the social equity workers' cooperative license cannabis retailer like a special use tool and have the one as a special use tool. So at least they will notify the constituents and the people what's going on in the area. It's not like they will come only because these licenses will come from the state. And we should put and think about more regulations how we can avoid that the state will approve something without us knowing what's going on. And that's what I'm looking for.
Thank you, councilman. Anybody else? Actually, before Councilwoman Harris, I'm sorry. Before we go back, Tina, we have a survey that we need to put into the record. So, I want to take a motion to incorporate survey into our file.
Motion is made by Councilor Peterson, second by Councilor Vargas. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it.
Thank you. Councilor Harris. Alright. And we also have a testimony, which will be exhibit a. I'll entertain a motion to enter into the record exhibit a.
Motion is made by Councilor Peterson and a second by Councilor Vargas. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it.
Councilor Harris, please.
Mr. President, I was gonna ask since this... We do have a sub a... Sub a, and the councilman reminded us that there were some changes that were made, and this was based on discussion. Could we talk a little about the changes?
Can we have someone talk about the changes? Absolutely.
These changes are actually the result of community input, community meeting that we had. And some of those concerns were taken into consideration. That's right. So this incorporate a large amendment which pertained to signage, the correctly displaying rules and regulation. But for a better explanation, I'll call upon mister Aaron Easter Garner.
If you can explain about the amendment that we made pertaining to signage to councilor Harris, I really appreciate that.
Yeah, I apologize. I do not have the exact language of the amendment in front of me, but at the... The core of the amendment is to ask for signage in the sales areas and entrances of potential dispensaries where they will ask for information that outlines all specific city ordinances and make sure that there's language that speaks to compliance with the Rhode Island Cannabis Act and the Rhode Island Workplace Safety Act. And basically it speaks to not allowing folks to smoke too close to entrances. I think state law requires that folks need to be 25 feet away, no smoking in parks, no smoking in public places, and at the end of the day it adheres it with general smoking laws like in the state because cannabis smoke is actually understood and interpreted to be the same as tobacco smoke.
It basically requires that the businesses post signage about just the top level restrictions that you can find in cityhood.
Thank you. Councillor Harris, is that
Oh yeah, additionally, I'm sorry, there's one thing that I did forget to add. For non compliance, we actually also added a violation. So if a retailer is found to be in violation, it's a 100 fine for the first incident. And if they are found to be in continued violation, the second and subsequent fines would be up to $250 So, that was always also in there.
you, Mr. President. I mean, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm confused tonight.
My back is turned too. I don't know who I'm talking to. But anyways, I'm so happy to hear that we as a committee did take in consideration some of the concerns because I felt like a lot of the changes that were made to this ordinance were made based on the fact that people had concerns about how people would be consuming the product after they have purchased it. I want to say, Mr. Chair, if you can allow me to say that.
It's a dangerous black market that's happening right now where a lot of this stuff is being spiked up. And I would much rather have a retail store or some place that would be more responsible for my kids or my grandkids or my great grandkids where they would also ask that they show ID so they won't be just out just purchasing in and everything. They would be... This this is done in a way that is a little different from what we're now. I'm not condoning that anyone are you...
Be a user, but, however, for folks that are using, I think there should be opportunity for it to be, like, regulated or to watch. I know the the state has came up with their own version, but as a city and special residents and people who care about... We care about that we have direct contact, I look at this as as something that should be done. And, I have... You have my vote tonight on on this campus.
Thank you, councilwoman. Any other committee members?
Councilman Royos? Thank you, chair. Oh, I just wanna make a few comments. First, I fully support this ordinance. I appreciate how we got here, how we took the time and engaged with the community.
I think that was the right thing to do and so very happy with this committee for the time to make sure this is right. I'm also a big fan, you know, just point this out, I do believe that we need to minimize as much red tape in part for the social equity workers co op retailers. It is a phenomenal economic model that we need to, you know, model as a city and I think we're gonna be at the forefront of this. It's really exciting. You know, worker co ops, the employees are essentially the owners.
They share in the profits and they make decisions together about the direction of the business. And that is an ideal business model we would like to replicate in the city and be a model for other towns in the state. So I support this ordinance as is and I hope we can gain all of your votes tonight on this. The second thing is this is I think an important point is I believe potentially Province, and we're still wrestling with other towns to get this, but I think Province at most would have four of these businesses. And that's it's very, in my view, very rare that we would actually have four licenses after this is said and done because we're competing with several towns and cities right now.
And so the point I'm trying to make is that there's not going to be this proliferation of marijuana retail businesses across our city. We're lucky if we get one or two out of this. So those are the comments I want to make. Thank you chair for allowing me to make them.
Thank you. Councillor Peterson.
Thank you. To echo some of the sentiments that my fellow counselors made, I too also agree that as intended the community engagement allowed us an opportunity to be able to add pieces that were or components that were supportive to continue with this movement. And I take all of that into consideration as I weigh my vote here but one of the things that I do also understand and can certainly ascertain as something that probably should be done is Councilman Vargas' point to, of notification, being able to be made aware of situations where permits are up in your respective areas. I think that it is important as counselors to be able to have an opportunity to create further engagement whenever necessary. And I think that to the point that Councilman Vargas had made it would be, I would be supportive of making the ask of having some, included in some of this, just some sort of a notification to the individual counselor at the time of permit application to be able to notify the said counselor as mentioned for them to then continue on engagement in their communities.
I leave that to additional discussion if necessary but I think that to his point I think being able to provide the community with a larger understanding of what this entails I think is always a responsibility that we should have and take partnership in. So just putting that out there hopes of being able to see if we can entertain that peace and discussion now.
Thank you, Councillor Petersen. So what Councillor Bargain is saying and what you just explained, you're suggesting some kind of notification under... When it comes to the... Just the permit because you do have some that are special use permit, community will be notified anyway along with the other governmental entity. So you're saying when it comes to the permit, which would, my understanding, will come from the cannabis commission that some kind of notification will be given to the local representatives so that they know what's going to happen actually, just a broad knowledge.
Correct. I just, if that's a possibility of something, would ask that we consider doing something like that in an effort to, again as mentioned create an additional opportunity for engagement for the community that would be supporting a retail shop of this nature.
