This bill is part of the 2019 Cannabis Bills section of our ongoing update on California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update which includes information on cannabis bills from other years.
AB 1356 (Ting D) Cannabis: local jurisdictions: retail commercial cannabis activity.
This bill, if more than 50% of the electorate of a local jurisdiction voted in favor of AUMA, would require a local jurisdiction to issue a minimum number of local licenses authorizing adult-use or medicinal retail cannabis commercial activity within that jurisdiction that would be permitted by a retailer license issued under MAUCRSA. The bill would require the minimum number of those local licenses required to be issued in that jurisdiction to be 25% 1/6 of the number of currently active on-sale general licenses for alcoholic beverage sales in that jurisdiction, as specified, unless the minimum number would result in a ratio greater than one local license for retail cannabis commercial activity for every 10,000 15,000 residents of the local jurisdiction, in which case the bill would require the minimum number to be determined by dividing the number of residents in the local jurisdiction by 10,000 15,000 and rounding down to the nearest whole number. The bill would authorize a local jurisdiction to impose a fee on licensees to cover the regulatory costs of issuing those local licenses. The bill would exempt from these provisions a local jurisdiction that, on or before after January 1, 2017, and until January 1, 2020, submitted to the electorate of the local jurisdiction a specified local ordinance or resolution relating to retail cannabis commercial activity that received a specified vote of the electorate.
This bill would allow any local jurisdiction subject to the requirements of this bill that wants to establish a lower amount of these local licenses to submit an ordinance or other law, that clearly specifies the level of participation in the retail commercial cannabis market it would allow, to the electorate of that local jurisdiction at the next regularly scheduled local election following the operative date of this bill. The bill would provide that the local ordinance or other local law becomes effective if approved by more than 50% of its electorate. The bill would require the local jurisdiction to issue those licenses as otherwise required by this bill within a specified period of time if a local jurisdiction subject to the requirements of this bill does not submit a local ordinance or other local law regarding the lower amount of licenses to the electorate, or that local ordinance or other local law fails to receive more than 50% of the approval of the electorate voting on the issue. By imposing additional requirements on local jurisdictions the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
[Note: This modified bill previously addressed annual reporting by cannabis licensing authorities – that language has been deleted from the bill.]
Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.
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