Encinitas selects four applicants to run marijuana businesses

Three locations on Coast Highway 101 and one on El Camino Real have won the city’s lottery and are licensed to operate retail cannabis.

When the hour-and-a-half lottery ended Friday morning, Oct. 21, urban planning manager Jennifer Gates said the next stage in the process would be a detailed city review of each of the four winning companies’ applications. A new license will be issued once that process is complete.

Here are the four suggested locations, listed in the order they were drawn.

• 1038 S. Coast Hwy, mid-block location in downtown Encinitas. At the north end of that block is the Fish Shop and at the south end is the Encinitas Ale House. The cannabis business applicant is Siesta Life Encinitas LLC.
• Leucadia location at 1030 N. Coast Highway, just south of Diana Street and a little north of Le Papagayo restaurant. Applicant is SGI Encinitas AP LLC
• Downtown spot on 583 S. Coast Highway, east of freeway, just north of E Street intersection, same block as Death by Tequila, The Roxy, Encinitas Cafe. The applicant is Humanity Encinitas 4, Inc.
• 211 N. El Camino Real, site just south of the Cotixan restaurant and just north of the self-service car wash. Located between the intersection of Mountain Vista Drive and Morena Street. The applicant is Ecrencinitas4 LLC.

The City of Encinitas will allow the retail sale of cannabis in 2020 when city voters approve the H bill, which allows four retail cannabis businesses to grow, manufacture, and distribute under certain regulations and restrictions. started taking steps to

Applicants for a retail license must submit proposals to the city by February 18, and the city has received about 200 proposals. Preference was given to applicants with at least 12 months experience as a cannabis business, he had 36 months as a pharmaceutical business, and he had 18 months as an Encinitas business. Her 171 applicants who met three criteria were entered into the top tier of the drawing process, and on the morning of Friday, October 21, all four business applicants were selected from that tier.

The raffle, which took place in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, was closed to the public and was broadcast live on the city’s website. The process seemed to go smoothly for the most part, but a problem arose just before the first winning numbers were drawn.

“The ball dropped, so we put all the balls back in the machine,” Gates, who ran the lottery, told the livestream audience.

It’s not a quick process.

Each of the 171 applications was represented by a red and white marble-sized numbered ball. Each ball was initially placed in a metal tray with the number up. For each of the four paintings, the camera pans a tray of numbered balls to let the livestream viewer confirm that the correct ball is in the tray, then pulls the balls out of the tray and drops them one by one into the sea. It was dropped. Penetrating wire mesh lottery machine. As each ball entered the machine, Gates called its number. The first reloading process of 171 balls took about 6 minutes from start to finish.

The restriction on lottery winners (must be at least 1,000 feet away from another entrant) also meant that some winners’ balls were removed after each draw.

The lottery’s first winner, 1038 S. Coast Highway, did not rule out other applications, except for one submitted by the same company to the site next door. The second winner, his 1030 N. Coast Highway site at Leucadia, eliminated several Leucadia Boulevard and Coast Highway locations. The third winner, Downtown 583 S Coast Highway Site, ruled out his three other Coast Highway spots, two on 2nd Avenue and one on F Street. Since many locations had multiple retail sales applications and therefore multiple numbered balls in the lottery, each elimination process could involve the removal of many balls.

In addition to not being permitted to be located near other cannabis businesses, the four retail sales operations must be at least 1,000 feet away from “sensitive uses” such as schools, daycare centers and playgrounds. Mm. We are open from 7am to 9pm, and city regulations require CCTV, alarms, and 24-hour security guards.

For information about the lottery and business licensing process, visit the city’s website at: