Lacombe council gave first reading Monday night to bylaw amendments that would regulate where cannabis retailers can be located in the city once recreational pot becomes legal.

Council also set the public hearing for Aug. 13 at 5:30 p.m.

Proposed changes to the city’s Land Use Bylaw are at the recommendation of an advisory body known as the cannabis readiness committee. They are considered to be less restrictive than what’s being proposed in nearby municipalities, with cannabis retail permitted in two commercial districts and discretionary in three others.

The vote for first reading wasn’t unanimous, with Coun. Chris Ross raising concern that the Winks convenience store, a short walk from two schools — Lacombe Composite and Lacombe Christian —  would have cannabis retail sales listed as a discretionary use.

Coun. Thalia Hibbs sat on the cannabis readiness committee and stands by its recommendations.

“I definitely support them. However, that being said, yes, there are people in the community that have some concerns about some of these locations,” Hibbs said.

“And that’s exactly why I wanted to move the bylaw as it was presented, but knowing that that public hearing opportunity is coming up for them to voice their opinion. So I’m really looking forward to that conversation.”

The committee’s recommendation to regulate cannabis sales through its Land Use Bylaw, and to ban its consumption in public, is rooted in the idea that pot should not be treated differently than alcohol.

As well, less-restrictive regulations in hopes of attracting businesses, fits with the city’s goal to increase its commercial tax base.

But in contrast to free market principles, one councillor floated a proposal that would curtail the number of pot shops.

During the meeting, Coun. Reuben Konnik called for setting a ratio, for the number of retailers to population. At one store per 3,000 people, as he suggested, Lacombe would be capped at four shops.

“My fear is … eight liquor stores and eight cannabis stores, and I don’t want to go down that road again,” Konnik said. “Someone approached me just the other day in the grocery store saying, ‘Why do we have eight liquor stores in town?’ I, for one, would like to see that investigated.”

Once council passes its rules for land use, the city will begin taking applications for development permits. No decisions or referrals to the municipal planning commission would be made until legalization.

Additional municipal costs

Hibbs recently returned from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference with a long list of different costs that local governments will pay for related to marijuana legalization.

Some of them are administrative duties, such as licensing, inspections, legal consultation, communications. Enforcement: of zoning, property standards, community standards. Policing: testing for impaired drivers, public education, cracking down on illegal grow-ops.

While a dollar figure for those expenses is still unknown, the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is calling for the province to direct 70 per cent of the excise taxes it receives from the federal government, to municipalities.

“I haven’t heard that there is that commitment to that 70 per cent from the province yet. So that makes me a bit nervous,” Hibbs said.

“Because it is exactly the municipalities, the front line, that is going to absorb a lot of those costs and yet we have no certainty in the dollars that are going to fund that.”

Lacombe’s plan is to use tax revenue to cover those costs, with surplus spent on local addictions support strategies.