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Residents are riled about rumours that a soon-to-open cannabis store in the Olde Riverside commercial area will have a potentially pungent feature: an outdoor consumption patio.
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“The consumption part caught me,” said Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, who on Monday formally made a request for administration to delve into what power the city has to control such a use.
She said the proposed location is on Wyandotte Street East within the boundaries of the Olde Riverside Business Improvement Association. She said as far as she knows a cannabis shop with a consumption patio would be a first for the area.
“Right now this is something that’s bouncing around the Riverside area and is of great concern to residents who live in close proximity to this, so I think it’s wise we get some counsel from the legal department,” Gignac said after Monday’s meeting.
The BIA area consists of a strip commercial on Wyandotte with “homes right next to it, both north and south,” she said, referring to adjacent residential streets.
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“When it comes to consumption, there are issues with respect to second-hand inhalation of cannabis smoke that severely impacts people with respiratory problems.”
There’s been a proliferation of cannabis stores locally since the first one opened in the spring of 2020, and the City of Windsor has had very little control over where these privately owned operations, licenced by the province, can go. But this latest possible wrinkle — having a patio where outdoor consumption of the product would be allowed — prompted Gignac to find out from the city’s legal department about any ways to regulate such a use through zoning.
By Monday morning, she had been unable to get the information she was seeking so she asked the question at the end of Monday’s council meeting, setting the wheels in motion for a formal response.
