More Providence cannabis shops? These are the neighborhoods where they could be allowed.

Wheeler Cowperthwaite, Providence Journal

PROVIDENCE − A proposed ordinance to expand where marijuana shops can open in Providence, from just one industrial zone to two of the city's three types of commercial districts and downtown, is to be vetted by the City Plan Commission on Tuesday night.

As is, Providence allows only medical-marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers. They are allowed by a special permit in the the commercial zone with the heaviest land uses, and by right in one of the three industrial zones.

The ordinance would add two new categories of marijuana establishments:

  • Cannabis retailers

  • Social equity/workers cooperative licensed retailers

Marijuana plants in a Rhode Island grow facility.
Marijuana plants in a Rhode Island grow facility.

Are there marijuana shops in Providence right now?

Providence has one dispensary and there are six other dispensaries around the state. Separately, there are 24 available licenses for retail cannabis sales, but the state Cannabis Control Commission has not yet established rules for how retailers are supposed to apply for those licenses, much less figured out how to award them.

What comes next?

Tuesday's meeting is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. at 444 Westminster St. It will also be online via Zoom.

While the City Plan Commission will offer its opinion on the proposed ordinance, zoning changes are under the City Council's purview.

Read reporter Amy Russo's breakdown of the proposed ordinance and its origins here.

Where would marijuana shops be allowed?

Under the proposal, cannabis retailers would be allowed in the following zones:

  • C-2 zone with a special permit

  • C-3 zone by right

  • Downtown by right

  • Light industrial (M-1) by right

Social equity/cooperative licenses to get proposed better zoning

Social equity and worker cooperative licensees, which are having an even harder time than other retailers to start the process of opening, would be allowed by right in all the same zones as retail cannabis.

Instead of a special use permit, they would be allowed by right in the city's C-2 zones and be required to provide fewer parking spaces than is required for other businesses.

More: $1.1M sits in an equity fund to help minorities start pot businesses. None has been spent.

A 3,000-square-foot retailer would need six parking spaces while a social equity/cooperative retailer would need three.

The ordinance was created after PVD Flowers, a planned cannabis dispensary run by a diverse worker cooperative, approached the City Council to complain that zoning was making it too tough to get a storefront.

Andre Dev, one of PVD Flowers' worker-owners, called the challenges "pretty significant" and said he is stuck in a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum.

"You need real estate to get a license, you need a license and real estate to get funding, but you need funding to get real estate," Dev said.

Commercial district ban could be gone in new Comprehensive Plan

While the proposed ordinance would not allow any pot shops in the city's C-1 zone, the current city proposal for the comprehensive plan includes eliminating the designation entirely, folding it into the more business friendly C-2 zone. If that were to happen and the ordinance passed, marijuana shops would be allowed in the zones currently designated C-1.

The comprehensive plan proposes a whole host of other changes, including turning all duplex zoning into three-family zones, leaving single-family zones alone and increasing the number of R-4 zones in the city, which currently allow for dense apartment buildings.

In practical terms, where would cannabis retailers be allowed?

In addition to all of downtown, the following corridors would largely allow marijuana retail shops because they are zoned C-2:

  • Broad Street *

  • Elmwood Avenue

  • Westminster Street

  • Hartford Avenue

  • Wickenden Street

  • North Main

  • South Water Street

  • Gano Street

  • Wayland Square

  • Atwells Avenue in Federal Hill

On Providence's current zoning map, C-2 districts are in light red, C-3 districts are in dark red and C-1 districts are light pink. Marijuana retailers would be allowed in the C-2 and C-3 districts, although the city's Comprehensive Plan proposes eliminating all C-1 districts and turning them into C-2, which would expand the scope of potential retail marijuana locations. All of downtown would allow cannabis shops.

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Contributed to DocumentCloud by Wheeler Cowperthwaite (The Providence Journal) • View document or read text

* Marijuana shops on Broadway would be allowed on only a few parcels, as the corridor is zoned mostly "resident professional."

On Providence's current zoning map (see map above), C-2 districts are in light red, C-3 districts are in dark red and C-1 districts are light pink. Marijuana retailers would be allowed in the C-2 and C-3 districts, although the city's Comprehensive Plan proposes eliminating all C-1 districts and turning them into C-2, which would expand the scope of potential retail marijuana locations. All of downtown(gray) would allow cannabis shops.

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Reporters Amy Russo and Tom Mooney contributed to this story.Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence may allow more retail marijuana stores. Here's how.

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