The decision to allow cannabis retail and manufacturing businesses to operate in the City of Turlock was a long-time coming, with multiple debates and hours-long impassioned City Council meetings. The Turlock City Council finally decided to reverse its ban on cannabis-related businesses in 2019 by adopting a five-year pilot program.
With less than a year remaining on the five-year limit on the pilot program, the City of Turlock is starting the process of reviewing its decision and is asking the public for their input.
The City of Turlock’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Cannabis will hold a public meeting to discuss the future of the five-year pilot program for cannabis businesses at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Yosemite Room at City Hall.
At Ad-Hoc Committee, which was appointed by Mayor Amy Bublak, is composed of Councilmembers Cassandra Abram (chair of the committee), Councilmember Kevin Bixel, Planning Commissioners Matt Davis, and Jim Reape. The Committee is looking into whether to extend the five-year program, its costs and benefits to the City, and ways to improve it.
In May 2019, the City of Turlock reversed its ban on marijuana operations with the adoption of a cannabis pilot program. The program was adopted in a split vote, 3-2, with Mayor Bublak and then-Council member Rebecca Arellano opposing.
The five-year pilot program allows for the regulation of cannabis businesses through a development agreement and a conditional use permit process. The program allows up to four cannabis dispensaries in the City of Turlock, along with a not specified number of commercial manufacturing, testing and distribution businesses.
At the time of the vote, Bublak explained her position:
“My stance is as law enforcement for 23 years, that it’s still a federal law and I’m not going to violate a federal law,” said Bublak. “…I put it on the agenda against my better judgment.”
Two months after the City Council decision to start a cannabis pilot program, the City received 31 applications from potential cannabis retail operators.
The four operators who have obtained retail cannabis licenses include Firehouse, Evergreen Market, Perfect Union, and Natural Healing Center. In 2021, JDI Farms, Inc. opened a cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution business in the existing 98,770 square foot building at 600 D St. In April of this year, Flavor Farms received Planning Commission approval to open a cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution business that would occupy space at 680 D St.
Along with making their way through the application process and thorough background checks, those who received one of the retail cannabis licenses then had to secure an allowable location. The cannabis pilot program details general location restrictions, which include anywhere within 600 feet of a school, day care or youth facility.
Under approved development agreements, cannabis businesses are required to pay the City a Public Benefit charge in the amount of 5.25 percent of gross receipts, with .25 percent set aside for drug diversion and education programs. The City anticipated in 2019 that once all dispensaries and other cannabis-related businesses are in full operation, Turlock could see a minimum of $2 million per year in Public Benefit revenue.
In 2020, the City Council approved a policy that will see the money collected and placed into a special cannabis reserve account within the General Fund. From there, the money can be spent on: cannabis-related expenses, unfunded liabilities, and Capital Expenses for one-time emergency Capital Improvement projects.
The only ongoing operational expenses that the cannabis funds will be used for are the direct costs associated with running the cannabis pilot program, including security for both the collection and deposit of the all-cash revenue, enforcement of the pilot program, monitoring businesses for compliance with their development agreements, auditing, code enforcement and any legal fees that may arise.
The cannabis funds can also be used for unfunded liabilities under the new policy, such as asset replacement (like City facilities, equipment, and vehicles), the current deficit in the Engineering Fund, Landscape Assessment or CalPERS Unfunded Liability.
In January of this year, Turlock City Attorney George Petrulakis said that the program has to date, generated more than $3 million for city coffers. During fiscal year 2020-21, the city received $1,181,315.11 in revenue from sales of cannabis. The following year, the city garnered $1,241,144.88. And through about half of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the program has generated $581,241.38, for a total of $3,003,701.37.
More than $2.6 million of those funds have been used to pay for renovations to the city’s lone public pool — Columbia Pool — in west Turlock’s Columbia Park. More than $220,000 has gone to matching federal funds to hire police officers, while $100,000 went to purchase cameras that will read license plates and aid in crime prevention. Another $55,000 was used by the city for a vehicle purchase.
