Cannabis retailers will be permitted in downtown and midtown Riverside despite an earlier proposal to ban marijuana sales there, but the City Council may make other changes to regulations for sellers.
The city has been working to refine its commercial cannabis rules since January, and in March the council supported banning sales downtown and in midtown as it voted to cut the number of cannabis-related business permits citywide from 14 to seven.
But at a meeting Tuesday, June 17, the council failed to adopt a municipal code amendment that would have prohibited cannabis sales in those two key commercial zones.
“For the sake of us not losing all the hard work that has gone into this … I will support the recommendation and move to approve,” Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes said Tuesday.
She was joined by Councilmembers Philip Falcone and Sean Mill in approving the motion, which also would have increased the buffer between cannabis retailers and public parks from 600 feet to 1,000 feet. Councilmembers Chuck Conder and Jim Perry opposed, ending the matter in a 3-2 vote, with Councilmembers Steve Hemenway and Steven Robillard absent.
With no council majority reached, the motion failed.
Perry, who has not been in support of any cannabis-related storefronts in the city, said at the meeting he wouldn’t support limiting the neighborhoods where retailers could set up shop.
“I haven’t supported this from the very beginning … and I don’t think I’m going to start now,” Perry said. “I am also not in favor of having two large neighborhoods cut out of this. I think what we do for one, we do for all.”
Other regulations to be considered by the council were pulled from the agenda Tuesday, but are expected to return to council on July 1, according to Deputy City Clerk Nancy Aguilar-Crunk.
In January, the council approved a 90-day postponement on the process to review and approve cannabis-related business permits to take time to study where such storefronts may be located and assess their impacts on the surrounding areas.
The city received more than 40 applications for cannabis permits in December 2023, and narrowed the list to 14 applicants. Officials narrowed the list further to seven in March — should those applicants move forward with the permit process, they would have to adhere to the regulations approved by the council.
The top seven candidates for business permits are STIIIZY Riverside LLC, SGI Riverside LLC, C4TP Retail A Inc., Riverside Community Retail LLC, Community Oriented Riverside Retail LLC, Riverside Responsible and Compliant Retail LLC and Blaine St. RS LLC, according to a report presented to the council in March.
The city’s pause on permit reviews is facing criticism from would-be cannabis retailers.
Dana Cisneros, an attorney representing some of the applicants, said the city has “arbitrarily” and “capriciously” changed its ordinance in a way that would limit the variety of retailers that can operate in Riverside.
“None of it makes sense … the voters wanted this, the voters voted for it … let’s be honest why this process is being changed,” Cisneros said, calling for more transparency on the permitting process.
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