Green light: Revelstoke council OKs industrial medical marijuana zoning planning

The City of Revelstoke has received about half a dozen enquiries about medical marijuana production here and Revelstoke City Council has now given the green light to developing zoning rules for warehouse-style facilities in industrial zones.

Councillors were asked to make a decision at the March 10 council meeting, following federal government legislation changes last year. The changes were part of a plan to tighten licensing, though this put the onus on local municipalities to specify where production fits in their locale, as development services manager Dean Strachan explained.

“Many of the regulations for smaller facilities have been removed, there are some legal contention to that that are still in place. The intent is there will be enough producers in Canada to satisfy the marketplace and remove that conflict,” he said.

“Because this use is not currently listed in our bylaw, it [currently] could apply to any zoning district,” Strachan said.

“By designating industrial as the location for these facilities, we would prevent them from appearing in any other development plans.”

About a year ago, council held off making any bylaw decision until they saw what other similar communities chose to do. The example shown at the meeting was of True Leaf Medicine Inc., a fully-enclosed industrial production facility in Lumby, BC.

Their warehouse-style facility in Lumby doesn’t rely on glass-roofed greenhouse-style production, and could be built in snowy Revelstoke, the idea goes. The chairperson of True Leaf happens to be former Premier of B.C., Mike Harcourt.

At the Mar. 10 council meeting, acting mayor Linda Nixon noted that it was lucrative business for its employees, saying some earn $80,000 a year.

Strachan said there are a lot of technical jobs involved in production.

“This particular facility has a spin off side to it that they are producing dog treats from the hemp material [waste]. So they don’t just produce marijuana. One of the partners involved in this particular project used to be an all natural dog food producer,” Strachan said.

What this means for Revelstoke, time will tell, but it will be like Nixon’s last comments on the matter.

“Interesting. Very interesting,” she said.

Previously: Revelstoke explores commercial marijuana production zoning