Palm Springs City Council could vote to temporarily bar new cannabis dispensaries
Update 10/26/23
The Palm Springs City Council approved a 45-day moratorium on new cannabis dispensaries.
Original Report 10/24/23
The Palm Springs City Council could vote Thursday to temporarily bar new cannabis dispensaries while considering bigger changes for an industry some council members think has become oversaturated and unsustainable.
That change could include a major reduction on city taxes on cannabis sales.
City staff recommends that the council vote on an urgency ordinance to block new permit applications for being considered for 45 days.
At least four of the five councilmembers would need to vote for the moratorium to take effect right away.
"I just want everyone to know this isn't a ban. This is simply a pause. A pause for us to sit back, take a look at the current regulations, the current market conditions, and try to make it better for the future," said Veronica Goedhart, the director of special program compliance for Palm Springs.
Goedhart added, "We do have an oversaturation of retail businesses in Palm Springs. Our city is not very large, and we have the largest number of dispensaries in the Coachella Valley per capita. The industry is facing a lot of challenges with taxes, and then the competition with the oversaturation. so we really want to revisit what we can do to prevent the industry from collapsing."
You can watch an in-depth interview with Goedhart about this potential moratorium at the top of the article.
