RIVERSIDE (CNS) – Riverside County supervisors today approved licenses
for a cannabis retail outlet in East Hemet, within a two-story commercial
building from which both on-site and mobile sales are planned.
Following a public hearing, the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 — with
Supervisor Karen Spiegel absent — to authorize Cake Enterprises to
establish a dispensary at 43613 E. Florida Ave., just west of the Ramona
Expressway.
The facility will be situated in a 1,785-square-foot suite, where
adjoining businesses include a women’s hair salon, a barbershop, a photography
studio and an appraisers’ office, according to the county Transportation & Land
Management Agency.
The outlet will provide on-site marijuana distribution seven days a
week, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., as well as mobile sales and deliveries, available
seven days a week, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
TLMA officials said in documents that there will be full-time armed
security at the location, which will feature “a secure check-in reception area
and lobby, a cannabis sales area, a secure vault for product storage, waste
disposal room, employee break room, office and security room.”
There was no open public opposition to the outlet, which is the second
to be approved by the board in the unincorporated community within the last
three years.
Under its 10-year conditional use permit and development agreement,
Cake Enterprises will be required to make a first-year public benefits payment
to the county totaling $33,560. An ongoing annual payment of $35,800 will also
be owed, increasing by 4% every year.
The payments are intended to offset the costs to the county of
providing additional law enforcement, street maintenance and other services in
and around the site.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the proposal last
November and forwarded it to the board for final consideration.
Since 2020, including the latest permit authorization, the board has
granted 24 conditional use permits for cannabis businesses in unincorporated
communities, seven of which have opened their doors. In addition to East Hemet,
operations have been authorized in Bermuda Dunes, Coronita, Green Acres,
Highgrove, Mead Valley, Temescal Valley, Thousand Palms and Winchester.
Under Ordinance No. 348, which contains provisions of the county’s
Marijuana Comprehensive Regulatory Framework of 2018, there are a series of
steps laid out that prospective businesses must take to be eligible for
permits. Safety and health safeguards are part of the regulatory stipulations.
Under an ordinance approved by the board in March, operators must
submit applications to the California Department of Cannabis Control within 60
days of obtaining a conditional use permit from the county. Otherwise, their
permits could be revoked. However, there is no deadline for when the state
processes and approves or denies an application, which TLMA officials have
acknowledged can take almost a year.
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