Supervisors extend deadline for medical cannabis dispensary permits to January 21, 2009 after debate

The Board of Supervisors on May 6 approved an ordinance (item 14) amending the planning code to extend the deadline from March 1, 2008 to January 21, 2009 for certain medical cannabis dispensaries to obtain required permits. The ordinance passed on first reading by roll call; the clerk recorded the motion as passed with a majority and one recorded dissent.

Supervisor Ellsberg expressed strong frustration with continued deadline extensions for the medical cannabis sector, calling the process “broken” and saying repeated waivers were unacceptable. “This industry, more than any other industry, continues to be granted waiver after waiver after waiver,” Ellsberg said, and said the board should consider a legislative remedy.

Supervisor Daley and others argued the extension responds to logistical delays within city departments — dispensaries that complied with Planning Department requirements still awaited clearances from the Department of Building Inspection, the Mayor’s Office on Disability and the Department of Public Health. Planning staff member Sullivan Lanane told the board that the Planning Commission had reviewed the item and supported the extension to January 21, 2009; she said 33 dispensaries are known in the city and that 30 had cleared Planning Department review and remained in the pipeline with other agencies.

Daley said the extension was intended to allow dispensaries that filed permits in good faith to complete the multiagency approval process. Planning staff and supervisors noted that three of the 33 dispensaries either missed initial deadlines or were subject to enforcement actions and were not being extended.

Supervisor Halle (as noted on the floor) and others raised concerns about the length of the extension and the mayor’s office on disability’s involvement; board members asked why the process remained incomplete and where bottlenecks existed. Planning staff said the remaining steps largely involved DBI, Mayor’s Office on Disability and the Department of Public Health, and that only one dispensary had completed the entire permitting process as of the staff’s latest information.

On the roll call recorded in the transcript, the ordinance passed on first reading with a majority and one recorded no vote. The transcript records that Supervisor Ellsberg planned to dissent. The ordinance extension authorizes the additional time for those dispensaries that had met Planning Department thresholds to complete remaining city reviews.

Implementation steps recorded in the hearing: the Planning Department has routed compliant dispensaries to DBI and the Mayor’s Office on Disability and then to the Department of Public Health for final sign-off; city staff said they were coordinating with the City Attorney’s Office and other agencies where enforcement or deadline noncompliance required action.