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Chair Gaines and Commissioners,
I respectfully urge the Parks and Community Enrichment Commission to consider the public health and safety implications of the City's proposed Title 17 cannabis zoning changes.
These proposals would remove parks and youth-serving facilities from Sacramento's list of protected sensitive uses, allowing marijuana dispensaries and marijuana smoke lounges to locate closer to parks, after-school programs, youth facilities, churches, rehabilitation centers, and residential neighborhoods.
Recent events demonstrate why these concerns deserve serious consideration.
Earlier this month, an attempted burglary at a Sacramento cannabis business on Thys Court resulted in a shooting that left one person dead and another critically injured. The incident has renewed concerns throughout the cannabis industry regarding ongoing robberies, burglaries, and violent crime targeting cannabis businesses. Sacramento cannabis operators interviewed by CBS Sacramento publicly expressed frustration with the City's handling of these ongoing public safety challenges and stated that crime targeting the industry continues to be a major concern. CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/sacramento-thys-court-cannabise-warehouse-shooting-arrest/
The City already requires armed security guards at dispensaries because these businesses are recognized as higher-risk targets due to cash transactions and high-value products. At the same time, the City is considering removing buffers that currently protect parks, youth facilities, churches, rehabilitation centers, and residential neighborhoods from these uses.
Marijuana smoke lounges raise additional concerns related to impaired driving, intoxication, secondhand smoke exposure, and compatibility with nearby youth-serving and recovery-based environments.
We have already seen the consequences of incompatible land uses through the dispensary approved next to the Diamond House rehabilitation facility in South Sacramento. Despite objections raised during the approval process, the project moved forward, and Diamond House has since indicated it plans to relocate when its lease expires due to the impacts of operating alongside a cannabis business.
This is not simply a cannabis policy issue. It is a parks, youth, public health, and community safety issue.
I respectfully ask the Commission to encourage the City Council to maintain strong sensitive-use protections for parks, youth-serving facilities, rehabilitation centers, churches, and residential neighborhoods before any Title 17 changes are adopted.
Thank you for your consideration.