The new year has proven to be very busy with several California counties and cities overturning previous moratoriums on commercial cannabis activity. This week, Jurupa Valley and Chula Vista come on board, while Riverside County continues to accept applications for wholesale nurseries, manufacturing, testing, and distribution. The City of San Fernando is still in its public hearing process to amend current ordinances that prohibit all commercial cannabis activity. CalCannabis has also made some waves with its announcement that they are accepting annual license applications.
California Department of Food and Agriculture: CalCannabis Update for Cultivators
The Department is accepting annual license applications. Applications can be submitted in-person or on-line, through its portal. Those submitted on-line will be processed faster. The Review process for applications begin when fingerprints are submitted for each owner on the application.
More information can be accessed on the CalCannabis website.
Chula Vista, CA
The City’s Council is considering setting its cannabis business tax at 7% of gross receipts, and its cannabis cultivation tax at $25/SF. The City will also be releasing its commercial cannabis permit applications today for retail, cultivation, testing, manufacturing, and distribution.
More information can be accessed on the City’s website.
Jurupa Valley, CA
The City of Jurupa Valley will begin accepting priority applications from Tuesday, January 22 at 8 a.m., until Wednesday, February 6, at 5 p.m. No applicant will be permitted to apply for more than one (1) priority application.
Priority applications are for those applicants that had filed a Statement by Unincorporated Association with the Secretary of State and was stamped, before Sept 1, 2016, with specific language that includes “commercial cannabis” or “commercial marijuana.”
Non-Priority Applications will be accepted beginning Monday, April 1 at 8 a.m.
Exempted commercial cannabis activity will only be permitted in C-1/C-P, M-SC, B-P, or R-VC. Retail will only be permitted in the C-1/C-P and R-VC zones. Retail permits will be limited to a maximum of 7, which is based on the current estimated population of the City.
The application Fee is $2,500.
More information can be accessed on the City’s website.
San Fernando, CA
The City’s Council will reopen the public hearing on the city’s consideration of an ordinance authorizing certain regulated commercial cannabis businesses in the City. The Council will convene before July 2019 with a set of recommended modifications to the existing ordinance that prohibits all commercial cannabis activities.
More information can be accessed on the City’s website.
City of Los Angeles, CA
The Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) will be issuing all eligible Phase 1 Priority Processing Applicants and Testing Laboratory Applicants, an invoice to pay their annual renewal fee of $4,030 per registered commercial cannabis activity. Once the invoice is paid to the Department of Finance, the applicant or owner may go to DCR to pick up their renewed Temporary Approval documents which will be valid through the end of 2019.
Failure to make payments will mean expiration of the authorization and DCR will notify the Bureau of Cannabis Control stating that the registered applicant’s temporary authorization has expired.
More information can be accessed on the City’s website.
Riverside County, CA
All cannabis related activities that are permitted by the County that is not cultivation or retail, will require applicants to submit Conditional Use Permit application and an Environmental Review for CEQA upon time of submittal. A Development Agreement will be required later on in the permitting process. All applications will be subject to a public hearing before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
Any proposed commercial cannabis business operations that are located in zones that do not permit commercial cannabis activity will need a Change of Zone (CZ) application at the time of submittal. Application fees are required to be paid upon submittal.
Minimum fees are expected to be as follows:
Conditional Use Permit: $8,686.32
Environmental Review: $471.24
Change of Zone: $3,648.54
Development Agreement: TBD
Permitted activities include wholesale nurseries, both volatile and non-volatile manufacturing, testing, distribution, cultivation and retail. Currently, applications for retail and cultivation are not being accepted but are expected to open up in February.
More information can be accessed on the County’s website.
Have you casually been considering getting into the industry? Or have you been doing some major research? Regardless of where you’re at in the process, we can help you figure out the best way to break into the industry. Want to talk about licensing? compliance? taxes? or investments? Contact a team member today!
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