DATE: August 19, 2026
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Development Services Department
TITLE: STOREFRONT RETAIL CANNABIS LICENSE TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURE
RECOMMENDATION
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Staff recommends the City Council address modifications of Phase 3 of the Storefront Cannabis Licensing process requested by applicants and provide direction regarding Staff's recommendation to conduct a blind lottery among three tied applicants for the City's final allotted license.
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
On August 6, 2025, the City Council approved the storefront cannabis retail licensing program, allowing up to four licenses via a competitive selection process (Attachment 1). The approved program consists of a three-step phased process for cannabis license applicants, with a streamlined two-step process for the two established cannabis operators in the city. A third-party cannabis consultant, Rincon Consultants, Inc. (Rincon), assisted City planning staff in the review and evaluation of application materials and administration of the program.
The first phase of the application process consisted of a completeness evaluation of applications submitted during the Fall 2026 application window. Applicants that failed to submit a complete application would be eliminated from the process. Applications were preliminarily reviewed by Rincon during this initial review period for the limited purpose of confirming that all application materials required to be submitted in support of the licensing application were included. Planning staff confirmed the results of Rincon's review. All 17 applications received were considered complete and advanced to the scoring phase of the application process.
During the second phase of the application process, all complete applications were scored based on the City Council approved scoring matrix. Applications were rated from 0-100 (102 points possible but 100 was the maximum identified score) with those applications not scoring a...
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