Last week on Thursday, March 1, 2018, commercial cultivators of cannabis were allowed to submit an application to open a facility. Right now the deadline for the cultivators to apply is set at 5 pm on April 30th. Through an ordinance put into affect back in November of 2017, Colton officials are able to approve or award as many as two permits in the first year, and if no one qualifies the city’s criteria for opening a cultivation cannabis business, then no permit will be issued. The city manager’s office will be vetting any of the applications that are submitted by location, neighborhood compatibility and police protection and security. At the February 20 Colton Council Meeting, City Attorney Victor Ponto stressed to the council, “We are going to try to get a collective look at each of these potential businesses so we are comfortable with the potential fit of these businesses into the community as a whole.” After the vetting process, the top two candidates will be presented to the council at a public hearing, sometime in June. At that time, both applicants, if there are two, will be asked to present their team and give an overview of their proposal.
The application fee is running over $5,000 for each of the applicants to hopefully cover staff cost and paperwork to be submitted to the council. Mayor Richard DeLaRosa has said, “I hope we find some viable candidates to open a cultivation operation in Colton, so we may find a new source of monies to add to the city coffers to pay our other bills. Cultivation facilities where marijuana is planted, grown or harvested are the only commercial cannabis businesses that are permitted in Colton. The facility must be at least 10,001 square feet and no larger than 22,000 square feet and located no closer that 600 feet of any school, daycare operator, or park. The operators selected will not be able to sell or consume marijuana on site.