Yaletown condo dwellers worry illegal pot shop will be allowed to open legally in their tower

Residents of a Yaletown condo building who have lived above an illegal pot shop for four years are protesting the shop’s application for permission from the City of Vancouver to operate legally.

“It’s just appalling to me that they could get a licence,” said Ritu Vinluan, a mother of a toddler who has lived in the tower at 488 Helmcken St. at the corner of Richards Street for 16 years. “It just infuriates me.”

She said she opposes the shop called Weeds Glass and Gifts because they openly flout city bylaws by not only selling cannabis without a licence but by allowing customers to smoke pot in front of the store.

“They just start lighting up as soon as they leave the store,” she said. It’s not just the smoke she is concerned with, but also the exposure of the smoking culture to the children and youth who live in the building and neighbourhood.

She notes that the shop is across the street from Emery Barnes Park, which includes a children’s playground, and down the street from the city-run Gathering Place, a community centre for “vulnerable populations,” according to its website, as well as two daycare centres.

Vinluan has collected at least 200 signatures on an online petition opposing Weeds, which has applied for a development permit from the city, the first step in a three-step process to operate legally.

The deadline for public input is March 29.

Vinluan asked why the city has 300-metre distancing requirements from schools, community centres, neighbourhood houses and other cannabis stores, but not from residences.

“I don’t think they should be in a residential building or near a park or a daycare,” she said.

But if the distancing requirement applied to residences, there would be no place to operate a cannabis store because most retail has residential nearby, said Weeds owner Don Briere.

“I do think a lot of people appreciate that we’re providing a pretty good service to the community,” he said. “You get feedback whether you open a gas station, a pub or a church. Some people will be positive, some indifferent and some negative.”

He said, “We do shoo away a lot of people” when asked about customers smoking in front of the building.

Vinluan said the strata council was supposed to approve the tenant in the retail area of the building, which is separately owned, but either it wasn’t done or the shop opened as a drug paraphernalia shop four years ago and only later started selling cannabis.

Briere said when he signed his lease with the landlord, the landlord knew he was selling marijuana without a licence. The building is owned by Vanall Real Estate Vancouver Corp., whose sole director and officer is listed as Lequan Bo.

The Yaletown Community Association, a residents association, is opposed to the permanent licensing of Weeds, partly because there is another cannabis store within 300 metres. Remedy, at 1078 Mainland St., is among the 60 Vancouver sites that have already received a development permit, according to the city’s website.

The store’s website says it is closed until April.

“I don’t think (Weeds) should be allowed to even apply for a permit because it doesn’t fit the criteria,” said the association’s spokesman, Gaurav Mehra.

And he said he is cynical about the city process because anyone turned down for a development can appeal to the variance board, which will buy applicants more time to continue operating illegally and making as much money as they can before they are shut down.

Briere said he plans to appeal if the permit is denied.

Both Mehra and Vinluan are frustrated with the city’s lack of enforcement of the illegal shop, and say they were sent back and forth from city to police and the province.

Kathryn Holm, the city’s chief licencing inspector, said each development permit application is assessed for its community impact, including whether or not the applicant is a good neighbour.

Once granted the permit, “We expect them to comply with all the bylaws,” she said.

She encouraged people in the neighbourhood to convey their concerns to the city about an applicant during the public notification period.

She noted the city “has a long history of enforcement activity at this location.”