The agenda for Tuesday’s City Council’s meeting is certainly packed and providing Council manages to get through all of it, there are a number of issues that will almost certainly provoke a lot of discussion and equally, a substantial amount of public input.
The endless unease surrounding the retail of recreational cannabis gets revisited in Tuesday’s City Council meeting as a Study Session item, so it will almost certainly prompt plenty of back and forth conversation. Staff will recommend that Council review and discuss a presentation on cannabis social equity programs from other cities.
Back in June of last year, the first cannabis dispensary finally opened in the city of Santa Monica, more than a year and a half after the permit was granted in October 2021, six years after the application was requested in December 2017 and over 26 years since medical marijuana was made legal in the state of California. That dispensary is a branch of the Local Cannabis Company, which is owned by Massachusetts-based Calyx Peak.
However, this dispensary was only allowed to sell medical marijuana until a full recreational permit was issued in November of last year.
The request for applications ran from December 2017 through to February 2018 and saw over 21 different requests. A second dispensary, then known as Harvest of Santa Monica, was set to be situated at 1416 Wilshire Blvd was also approved, in January 2022. However, we only saw evidence of that coming to fruition two years later, in January of this year. Hopefully, there will be an update regarding an opening date for that outlet.
Another item that is almost certainly guaranteed to provoke discussion is a request from Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick that the City Council allocate a total of $22,500 out of its Discretionary Fund to the Pico Improvement Organization, Montana Merchants and Main Street Business Improvement Association, with each organization receiving $7,500.
The last City Council meeting took an unexpected twist when the seemingly administrative task of approving the 2023-24 Midyear Budget was derailed over Councilmember travel allowances. Councilmember Gleam Davis made a motion to move the original item and approve the FY 23-24 budget with one amendment, which was to take the proposed increase of $14,000, add $1,000 to it, transfer it back into the council discretionary fund and give $5,000 to each Business Improvement District for them to invest in community building and promoting local business.
And there’s more. In the first of two items that address the seizure of the land where Silas White intended to open the Ebony Beach Club, Councilmembers Caroline Torosis, Jesse Zwick and Davis will direct the City Manager and City Attorney, to report back to the Council in 90 days with historical and legal documentation pertaining to the ownership claims of Silas White, together with any evidence that indicates the City of Santa Monica exercised racial animus in its decision to seize the property where the Viceroy Hotel now sits at 1811 Ocean Ave.
White, an entrepreneur and Santa Monica resident, purchased the land in 1957, with hopes of turning the space into the aforementioned Ebony Beach Club, a place where the local Black community could come together during a time when such establishments were sparse, to say the least. However, just one year later, the City of Santa Monica claimed the property through a process called eminent domain and within a few years, demolished the building.
According to the agenda, recommendations could potentially include options for financial compensation, an outline of steps that would be required to transfer the parcel of land, determining the rightful legal heirs and assessing the operational and financial impact to the City and the Viceroy Hotel.
A follow up item is also on the agenda, this one at the request of Vice Mayor Lana Negrete, Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre, to look at the actual use of eminent domain by the City to acquire the property.
Also on the agenda, is a request and proposal to enter in an agreement with the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (HCHC) as the "selected development team" for affordable housing on three City-owned, public parking lot spaces near Wilshire Blvd and 14th Street.
Proposals from nine teams were reviewed and HCHC were selected based on the team’s "overall experience in development, design, operations and supportive services, including the strength of its proposal for the sites."
