Fruitvale residents will have their chance to weigh-in on the prospect of having the village’s first cannabis retailer open shop on Main Street in the coming months.
Council has set time aside for a consultation session on Monday, Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m., which is 30 minutes before the regular meeting will begin.
This public time is not required as the municipality already has respective regulations in place via its zoning and business licence bylaws.
Nevertheless, for this first time application, Mayor Steve Morissette says council decided to schedule a hearing for the sake of public interest.
“We just want to be transparent,” he told the Trail Times. “And to give people the opportunity to have their say about it if they wish.
“I think going forward, if there is another of this type of retail store that wants to come in, I don’t know that we’ll do this process again.”
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Unlike most municipalities, the village is not charging “extra” fees for a cannabis retailer to come in.
“We are open to new businesses and this is a legitimate business,” he said. “We don’t charge an extra fee for a liquor store, so why would we charge an extra fee for this business.”
While Morissette declined to reveal the exact location on Main Street, he did say the prospective applicant already owns a cannabis retail store in Warfield.
Trail currently has three respective stores now in operation, one in the Gulch and two downtown.
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