The independent board of variance on October 23 overturned the City of Vancouver’s rejection of an application by a potential cannabis-store owner who had wanted to operate at 3432 Dunbar Street, near West 18th Avenue.
La Canapa owner Ian Fung applied in February for city permission to open a cannabis store after Canada legalized cannabis on October 17. He had no intention of opening a city-licensed cannabis dispensary, which was a type of business that the city licensed until October 17.
Opposition came from residents in the tony Dunbar neighbourhood and the city rejected Fung’s application, he told Business in Vancouver after the board announced its decision to overturn city staff's decision.
“I’m happy, excited,” he said. “This is something probably that people are not used to and some of the points that they were concerned about in the past, they were just misinformed.”
Some residents, he said, were concerned that his store would be too close to a school but in fact, he said, there is no school within a kilometre.
Because the five-member board of variance unanimously overturned the city’s rejection of even considering his application, Fung now plans to apply for provincial and city licences. Both provincial and city approval is required.
“This is where the city is playing fast and loose with what constitutes significant neighbourhood opposition,” said Ian Dawkins, who consulted for Fung and is a principal at Althing Consulting.
“It really seems to come down to whether they want to put their thumb on the scale with that particular operator. It’s a very loosy-goosy process, and there is no credibility behind it when the city says there is significant neighbourhood opposition because I’ve seen, time and again, projects that are very credible and a good fit for the neighbourhood and they get denied.”
The most recent B.C. government stats show that 186 entrepreneurs have paid license fees to have their applications considered by the province. Of those, 113 are incomplete. The remainder, 73 applications have been referred to either municipal or Indigenous governments. No applications have been so much as approved with conditions at the municipal level much less had licences issued.
Some opposition to cannabis stores in neighbourhoods stems from fear that it will cause home values to fall.
A poll that real estate website Zoocasa released October 16 found that 64% of Canadian homeowners believe that a home where the owners smoked pot would see a decreased value. A further 57% of homeowner respondents said they think that even growing a legal amount of cannabis at home would reduce their desire to buy that property.
