After the Business License Commission hit the brakes on a new cannabis consumption lounge on Santa Monica Blvd. earlier this month, City Council will attempt to rectify the legal issue that tripped up the application at their meeting next week.
The owners of Fantom Flower expected a smooth discussion of the lounge they planned to open inside the former Flaming Saddles bar.
But a report by WEHOville showed that the location was clearly within a pre-drawn buffer zone forbidding cannabis businesses within 600 feet of West Hollywood Park, and that city staff had attempted to alter the zone’s boundaries before anyone could notice. The Business License Commission was not pleased, and the application was put on hold until City Council could review the problem.
City staff members are now recommending that the buffer zone around West Hollywood Park be re-centered on the only section of the park that they believe requires it — the southern parcel, where the Tiny Tots program will operate when it re-opens. City zoning laws prohibit cannabis businesses from operating within 600 feet of so-called “sensitive-use areas” — daycare facilities, youth centers, or schools within a park property. Parks themselves are not considered sensitive-use.
The agenda item also directs city staff to review the buffer zone map, a reference document that has been used by cannabis license applicants and the city since 2017, and to make any necessary updates as they arise.
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The map was well thought out and implemented. Staff should not have altered the map to accommodate this particular owner. It should stay as is and this business type should not be allowed to open in the spot it is seeking.
Are you a cannabis business in Weho? If not, you likely have no understanding of this map. Staff did not “alter” anything nor is staff doing anything to “accommodate this particular owner.” Every single cannabis business who has applied for a zone clearance has gone through the exact same process – nothing different. You are wrong – flat out.
Wow, someone is really bent out of shape on this one. Must be involved somehow. Professes to everyone else that they are “flat out wrong.” And that they are the only ones that know everything. Go take a hike. Or a toke.
I’d love to take a hike and a toke so thanks for the suggestion! Regardless, there’s no hidden conspiracy happening here. And yes, when you’re flat out wrong, you’re flat out wrong.
Lol.
Hi Patricia Arquette, investor of this Fantom Flower weed palace which somehow got a city map redrawn to greenlight this mess! What’s the significance of the fake name “Jackie Subeck” you picked to bully concerned residents in this thread?
I don’t relish the idea of pot smoke and potheads in my neighborhood. I signed on living here twelve years ago with the bars already in-place and that’s enough to deal with daily.
That train has left the station my friend. And if you had any idea what you were actually talking about, you’d know that the “potheads” otherwise known as regular people who consume cannabis are under strict and heavy compliance to install extremely expensive air filtration systems into their locations which will prevent “pot” smoke otherwise know as cannabis smoke, from leaking out. With all of the regulations and compliance these cannabis businesses have to endure, living or working next to a cannabis lounge may end up being the safest place in the neighborhood. Oh yeah, we’ve moved on from the… Read more »
Can you please explain exactly who will be responsible for enforcing regulations and compliance protocol?
Similarly please explain how “living or working next to a cannabis lounger may end up being the safest place in the neighborhood” and how “cannabis smoke is prevented from leaking out”?
How long have you personally been a cannabis advocate and why?
Those hoping this building will remain a gay bar will be let down as the city will surely ram approval for this pot place through without explanation or consequence. The city has always been infatuated with celebrities and this place has a celebrity owner.
Ahh…another “pot” guy. Sorry that your local gay bar is no longer there, but this group had zero to do with that. The City isn’t “ramming” any approvals through without explanation or consequence. Nor are catering to any sort of celebrity. Fantom Flower has had to go through the exact same process, regulatory scheme and compliance and every other cannabis business in Weho. There is zero different other than half of the cannabis business including Aeon Botanika, Calma, The Artist Tree, PleasureMed and Greenwolf spending nearly two solid years of their lives attempting calculated sabotage on every other legitimate cannabis… Read more »
Who said the cannibis license map is faulty? It was the map the City Council adopted in a public process. It is not for staff to undermine the rules in order to cater to an apparently favored applicant. I want to know who is pulling the strings at City Hall. There is not inherently faulty with the map; perhaps now it is “inconvenient” as someone at City Hall is supporting the new applicant but that is not a reason to change the map. Two prior applicants were barred from the area due to this map; where was staff’s concern then?… Read more »
Don’t you have anything better to do than to continue to pick on cannabis business who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and risked their livelihoods to apply for this license, follow procedures and stay compliant? Maybe you applied for one of these licenses and didn’t win, just like what happens when you run for City Council, is that it? You want to know who is pulling the strings at City Hall? I want to know who is pulling Steve Martin’s strings because it’s clearly…somebody. Nobody was barred from the area. Ask the Planning Department. So that’s just a… Read more »
Agree with you 100%
As much as I’m pro-cannabis, I think the original map should remain at least until the park is finished and a study of its use can be performed. Doing so a priori is a bit tacky.
Thank you for being pro-cannabis. Hopefully you are pro small-business too. These regulations have been worked out for years already so there’s nothing tacky about it. It’s time for the businesses to be able to open. Let the market decide who survives.
I’m also pro-cannabis, “Jackie.” Just like I’m pro-water reclamation plants. Doesn’t mean I want them built at the end of my block. Especially when anyone who lives in WeHo and has the Citizen app can see how much crime and violence these cannabis/cash-only businesses have already attracted.
Wasn’t the cannabis process suppose to be transparent and above board? Looks like the biggest sham ever to restrict free trade and then change the map.
Haha – you call yourself “90069?” How about getting some balls and come out from hiding. You clearly have ZERO idea of this process. Unless you have a cannabis license and have been through this process, sit down please.
Congrats to Larry and WeHoVille team for highlighting this “staff” redrawing of the Sensitive Use exclusion zone from WeHo park affecting SaMo Blvd.
It cannot be overstated how this “re-drawing” of the map, not to mention the original exclusion zone areas, affect the businesses and their landlords on Santa Monica Blvd. The original zone cost landlords significantly valuable tenants – and forced cannabis businesses to locate in other parts is the City. It would be extremely UNFAIR to change the playing field now to benefit one cannabis biz and landlord. (And I have no stake in this fight.)
Congrats for what, exactly? Just like so many other stories about city hall, the details of scandalous deeds and the identities of the actual perpetrators are never exposed. Never. There will never be accountability or disinfection of corruption without things like this being followed through on.
Agree. Good reporting with one glaring omission: who did this and under whose direction? We deserve answers and explanations.
You act as if something nefarious is happening here at the City level. You couldn’t be more wrong. May I suggest you flip your lens around and look for the perpetrators who are hiding in plain sight? This is a case of cannabis licensees who have no idea how to run a cannabis business so they are trying to divert your attention away from them over to some other bright shiny object to cover up their lack of knowledge and inability to operate their own business.
Once again – someone who doesn’t have the courage to comment under their own name. Larry Block and Wehoville are biased. Plain and simple. They allow advertising on these very pages from the same cannabis businesses who are attempting to sabotage the others. Nothing has been changed and nobody is “playing the field now to benefit one cannabis business and landlord” other than the members of the Adult Use Retail Association including Aeon Botanika, Calma, The Artist Tree, PleasureMed and Greenwolf. If you haven’t been through this process, you don’t have any knowledge of what this complicated and arduous process… Read more »
Bye rainbow district , it’s the drug district if city staff has their way. They don’t live here. We have to put up with the crime and crowds.
Cannabis lounges need to be a part of the main nightlife area of West Hollywood because the demand is there. This goes along with it being legalized, it makes no sense isolating them. Cannabis is healthier than alcohol and there is less violence associated with its use than alcohol.
How are you. qualified to make the statement that cannabis is healthier than alcohol? And relative to what?
An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually,15 making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The first is tobacco, and the second is poor diet and physical inactivity. Source: https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-facts-and-statistics There are no reported deaths from cannabis use alone. And before you going throwing more stones, you should consider that non-cannabis drug use in the “rainbow district” is extremely high. You know, if you opened your mind, you might actually find that cannabis businesses are much better than those with alcohol. You will not find people loud, belligerent, passed… Read more »
Exactly. I live on Larrabee and do not want to find 13 sheriffs dept. squad trucks at the end of my block a few nights every month. I see what those poor people who live by Med Men and Zen WeHo have had to go through, both on Santa Monica Blvd. just a bit east of here. Looks like an episode of Law & Order all the time
The original map should apply to all.
What original map Greg? The static one that was released in early 2018 to be used as a tool for applicants to have a general sense of where they could and could not look for property in the City? Is that the map you’re referring to? So if I’m reading into your 7 word comment correctly, you’re saying that ALL new businesses, cannabis or not, should have to adhere to the “original map?” Because if it’s not ALL new businesses, them I’m certain we’d all be looking at some form of discrimination. Is that what you’re hoping to see as… Read more »
I agree. When rules like this are bent that means money has changed hands.
Who got paid off?
Not Jackie.
See, I have enough courage in the truth to put my name on these comments. You, on the other hand, do not as you hide behind your screen name. If you have something positive or helpful to contribute to this conversation, come out from under the desk and show your face. You’ll be taken much more seriously if you do, otherwise, I have no time to argue with anyone who is too scared to speak under their real name.
Go take a long walk on a short pier.
Bullies like you make me twice as resistant to this. Seeing you troll every single comment in this thread is infuriating, you must have a financial investment in this, “Jackie.” I live on Larrabee and we recently had a monstrous hotel project forced on us at Larrabee x Sunset, the last thing we need is a corrupt City Council breaking rules to install a crime-inviting cash-only cannabis-cabal at the OTHER end of our block! Enough is enough