Supervisors will consider banning cannabis dispensaries in Chinatown at next week's board meeting, the Examiner reported.
The Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee Monday unanimously approved the proposed ban, introduced by District Three Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the neighborhood.
Monday's vote was a rebuke of the Planning Commission's 5–2 decision on June 14 to reject any such proposal, citing the importance of equity among all neighborhoods.
Since California voters approved cannabis for adult use via ballot Proposition 64, some members of the city's Chinese-American community have opposed moves to open dispensaries.
Last November, some residents called for a prohibition on retail cannabis stores in Chinatown as Supervisors prepared to finalize new rules for adult-use dispensaries.
At the time, Ellen Lee, a social worker at the San Francisco Community Empowerment Center, told the Associated Press she was concerned because marijuana remains illegal under federal law and children should be shielded from its exposure.
Peskin said he's listening to constituent concerns about the potential impacts of dispensaries opening in the city's most densely populated neighborhood.
"This legislation came directly from community leaders who live and work in Chinatown, and have extensive history in Chinatown leading various anti-gentrification efforts," Peskin aide Sunny Angulo told Hoodline via email.
"Supervisor Peskin has long been a champion of neighborhood-planning, particularly in neighborhoods that have traditionally been left out of city-led planning efforts."
A search of public records revealed no current dispensary applications in the works for any Chinatown addresses. The nearest proposed application is at 580 Green St. (at Columbus Ave.) in North Beach.
Peskin has pointed to an April letter to the Board penned by Wing Hoo Leung, president of the Community Tenants Association (CTA), which called for a dispensary ban in light of gentrification and potential secondhand smoke exposure.
Citing a changing neighborhood, density issues and "extreme gentrification and displacement pressures," Leung said allowing cannabis sales in the neighborhood would exacerbate residents' ongoing concerns.
According to the Office of Cannabis, while Chinatown is part of the city's existing "green zone," all proposed dispensaries must go through a conditional use authorization process.
If the neighborhood "were made ineligible for permits moving forward, then it would no longer be part of the green zone," Director of the Office of Cannabis Nicole Elliott told Hoodline via email, "thereby reducing the existing green zone."
When we asked if secondhand smoke could be mitigated by prohibiting smoking lounges at dispensaries, Peskin's office said it would consider all feedback.
"If the community would like to bring forward additional amendments or were to raise [these questions], I know that Supervisor Peskin would definitely be open to considering them," said Angulo.
