After a two-year stretch without pot shops, a medical marijuana shop appears headed back to Malibu.
The Malibu City Council voted 3-2 Monday night to allow a medical marijuana dispensary to open in a building shared with Zuma Jay’s Surfshop. Dissenting votes came from Councilmembers Joan House and Lou La Monte.
The proposed dispensary at 22775 Pacific Coast Highway was up against a similar proposed site at the former gas station at 22729 PCH, located between Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s restaurants. The property is owned by area developer Norm Haynie. According to council members and many who came to speak in support of 99 High Tide, operated by Malibu local Yvonne Green, discreetness was of primary importance.
“I happen to think that discreet is important, and that location is not discreet by any means,” Councilman Sibert said of Haynie’s proposal, which included promises of a large parking lot along PCH.
The parking for 99 High Tide will be located mostly out of sight.
However, House claimed that hoping for discreetness in Malibu is a pipe dream.
“I have never found anything discreet in Malibu. I’ve never seen that occur, but it was sweet to mention it. I’ve been here since ‘75 and I’ve never seen it happen,” House joked.
Among the primary reasons that only one of the two proposed dispensaries can receive a permit is that they are located too close together to comply with Malibu zoning ordinances, which dictate that pot shops must be located at least 1,000 feet away from public parks, schools, churches, synagogues and each other.
“Your two places are too close to each other. That’s really why we’re here. And even if we table it for a year, that’s not going to change,” La Monte said.
There was some talk of looking into amending the municipal code restricting the two shops to open, but that discussion was not permitted at Monday’s meeting.
What was discussed, tangentially, is the ethics of medical marijuana dispensaries in general, a topic that did not weigh into the decision, since medicinal cannabis dispensaries are legal under California state law.
“I think we are kidding ourselves if we think that we are going to keep marijuana away from teenagers and that they don’t know anything about marijuana,” Councilmember Laura Rosenthal said.
“If anything, I would much prefer teenagers to be around a compassionate and medical marijuana dispensary than the other places that they’re seeing and enjoying marijuana,” Rosenthal added. “I think the more we teach them that it can be used for medicinal purposes, that’s important.”
“There are an awful lot of phony prescriptions out there,” Councilmember John Sibert said, “so control of this is difficult.”
Ultimately, the council decided to grant Green the conditional use permit (CUP), with conditions about the number of parking spaces there would be outside the building. Alex Hakim, one of the owners of the commercial building, pledged that they would restripe the parking lot before opening the dispensary.
“We’re really adamant that we’d like as best as possible not to lose parking,” Hakim said, adding that if a different type of business moves into that retail space, it would likely require more parking, a fact that Planning Director Joyce Parker-Bozylinski confirmed.
“I cannot think of any use that would require fewer [spaces],” she said.
After voting to grant the CUP to Yvonne Green, Council voted 4-1 to deny Haynie’s proposal. The sole dissenting vote came from Joan House.