LAKEPORT >> The Lakeport City Council adopts specific fees required for Commercial Cannabis Permits that could affect those looking to start a business.
Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said the ordinance is set to take effect on January 31 and will allow processes for the receiving, reviewing and approval of commercial cannabis activities. He added that there would also be background checks for both the owner and employees of the businesses.
These various businesses within the city limits can include testing, cultivation, delivery retail sales, processing, manufacturing, licensing and taxation of the product.
“Staff felt it necessary to gather together and find out how much staff time would be involved in the processing of such applications,” Ingram said. “We have done our best to break down the portions of the process of permitting that is soon to be outlined in section 5.34 and calculated the expected hours to do such.”
The different fees that city staff has found can come from background checks, application submissions, application appeals, and annual reviews and inspections after a business is in place.
Altogether these fees have the potential to cost an estimated amount of $3,700. The amount will depend on the type of business, whether an application appeal is needed or if multiple background checks are needed.
Each background check will cost $354 per individual, and the application fee will cost between $1,025 and $1,185, depending on which business is under inspection. If an appeal is placed for a permit with a cost of $1,030 and to keep the business open and have annual reviews and inspections, the cost could rise to $1,100.
“We felt that manufacturing permits will take some additional hours of work for its review, mostly among the Building Official and the Fire Chief and that’s why you see the different price there,” Ingram said.
Besides City staff, the Police and Fire departments, the Department of Justice, and Building officials will all be a part of these various processes at different times Ingram said.
“We can analyze this cost again when we have had the opportunity to process a few of them,” Ingram said.
When putting together these prices, he added that they did make comparisons to other jurisdictions, assuring that the city had a competitive market to attract businesses.
Aside from these fees, there will also be land use entitlement fees, building permit fees, business license fees and any state required permit fees that cannabis business owners may have to pay for to operate a commercial cannabis business.
