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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 09 Licensing Fee for Medical Marijuana Dispensaries AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: 5/2/2016 Meeting Type: Regular Meeting Staff Contact/Dept.: Mary Bridget Smith, CAO Staff Phone No: 541-746-9621 Estimated Time: 10 Minutes S P R I N G F I E L D C I T Y C O U N C I L Council Goals: Enhance Public Safety ITEM TITLE: LICENSING FEE FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES ACTION REQUESTED: Conduct a public hearing and adopt/amend/not adopt the following Resolution: A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AMENDING THE MASTER FEES AND CHARGES SCHEDULE AS ESTABLISHED BY THE SPRINGFIELD MUNICIPAL CODE TO AMEND THE BUSINESS LICENSE FEE FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES. ISSUE STATEMENT: The city seeks to lower the licensing fee applicable to medical marijuana dispensaries in the City of Springfield. ATTACHMENTS: Attachment 1 – Proposed Resolution DISCUSSION/ FINANCIAL IMPACT: Medical marijuana dispensaries are currently required to obtain a business license from the City and pay a fee of $1,092 per year under SMC 7.600 et seq. The City Council has recently adopted new business license and associated regulations for recreational marijuana businesses. The Council has set the license fee for recreational marijuana businesses at $2,000 per year. There are currently 8 medical marijuana dispensaries located in the City of Springfield, and to date, 7 of those have applied to OLCC to become licensed as recreational marijuana businesses. If those facilities become licensed as recreational businesses, they will pay the higher recreational marijuana license fees and will no longer pay the medical marijuana dispensary fee. The new proposed fee for medical marijuana dispensaries is $750 per year. If this Resolution is adopted, the medical marijuana dispensary fee will be lowered in the City’s Master Fees and Charges Schedule and updated as per Council direction in the future. The financial impact is unknown because it is not definitely known how many current medical marijuana dispensaries within the City of Springfield will convert to recreational marijuana business, and whether any new medical marijuana dispensaries will locate in the City of Springfield. If 7 out of the 8 existing dispensaries convert their licenses to recreational marijuana businesses, and no new medical marijuana dispensaries locate in Springfield, then the financial impact of this proposed fee decrease would be a loss of $342 per year to the City of Springfield. This loss from the single remaining dispensary would be offset by $6,356 in additional revenue from the 7 potential recreational businesses, for a net gain of $6,014 to the City of Springfield.