Cannabis Store Appeal

On January 8, 2019, the VRCA presented its appeal against the City of Calgary’s approval of a development permit (DP2018-3342) for a cannabis store to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB). The SDAB’s decision was to deny our appeal. With this, the City of Calgary will issue a temporary (see SDAB Decision Document below), four-year, development permit to Cannabis Cowboys, the applicant, who may then apply for a building permit when they choose. The location of the new cannabis store will be the former Allure Beauty Salon in the Plazebo Mall: #212, 11245 Valley Ridge Drive NW.

Below is the VRCA's August 21, 2018 letter to the City of Calgary's Planning Department outlining the VRCA's reasons for opposing the application for a new cannabis store at the Plazebo. To the right is the VRCA's Notice of Appeal application filed with the SDAB on October 3, 2018. The SDAB's file number for our appeal is SDAB2018-0155.

This is a link to the City of Calgary's Cannabis store business guide that describes the City's process for starting a Cannabis Store in Calgary. This site also contains a links to the City's Cannabis Store Location Map, Cannabis Stores FAQ and the City's Cannabis Store Guidelines as well as links to other relevant policy documents.

Below are the VRCA's presentation slides and the applicant's (Cannabis Cowboys) presentation slides. PermitMasters, a consultancy group, was contracted by Cannabis Cowboys to make their presentation to the SDAB.

The SDAB's decision was to deny the VRCA's appeal thus releasing the City of Calgary's Development Permit to Cannabis Cowboys. On February 4, 2019, the SDAB released its decision document (below left) outlining its rationale for denying the VRCA's appeal. The SDAB's key reasons for denial of the VRCA's appeal are listed under Item #30 on page 7 of this document.

From Item 30, these include: "the School Reserve parcels do not currently contain Schools, there was no evidence presented to the Board that there were concrete plans or development permits approved for Schools on the Reserve parcels; the zoning for the proposed Cannabis Store is commercial and a Cannabis Store is a discretionary use; the location of the Cannabis Store on the commercial property is visually and physically separated from the School Reserve parcel by: the fire hall; the parking lot; and the building containing the service station; the nucleus of activity on the School Reserve parcels is at the opposite end of the parcels to the proposed Cannabis Store and generally accessed via the community centre; and the proposed Cannabis Store does not face the School Reserve parcels, it faces north to the parking lot of the commercial units and is not directed at the School Reserve parcels."

To the right is the Planning Committee's Valley Breeze article from March 2019 summarizing the results of the VRCA's appeal.