In April, Midway Community Planning Group approved an expansion for an existing medical marijuana dispensary and got an update from city officials on Sports Arena Boulevard leases.
This was also Cathy Kenton’s first meeting as the planning group’s newly elected president.
The Midway District is a hodgepodge of commercial, industrial, office and warehouse land uses, plus limited residential, in a transitional area bordering Old Town, Point Loma, Pacific Beach and downtown San Diego.
Community planners in Midway also got an invitation from Ocean Beach Town Council to participate in a Sunday, May 22 get-together of Peninsula civic leaders. The event will start at 10 a.m at a yet-to-be-determined location in the beach community.
The Point Loma Patients Consumer Co-Op at 3452 Hancock St., the first medical marijuana dispensary legally approved in Council District 2 and which opened in August of 2015, came in asking for planning group permission for a proposed building expansion.
Jim Bartell, of Bartell & Associates, representing the co-op, said the expansion was a small addition of 672 square feet, enough to expand counter space and relocate the manager’s office and a dispensary safe room.
An architect for the remodel said the expansion would bring additional lighting, security and landscaping out front within the same building.
Asked why the expansion was necessary, attorney Gina Austin, of the Austin Legal Group, representing the dispensary, replied, “The space we have today can’t service the clients we have.”
Planning group board member Jacob McKean, proprietor of Modern Times Beer, an existing Midway microbrewery, said the dispensary so far has exhibited exemplary behavior.
“We’re just down the street from them, and there’s been no negative impact at all,” McKean said.
The vote was 6-1-2 in favor of the dispensary’s expansion.
In an information item, Patti Phillips and Cybele Thomson, from the city’s Real Estate Assets Department, briefed planners on the status of city-owned Sports Arena leases.
“A permit has been pulled to demolish the old (vacant) Black Angus Restaurant, something I’m sure you’ll be happy about,” said Phillips about the former restaurant space at 3340 Sports Arena Blvd. The remnant restaurant, long an eyesore, will be torn down soon, Phillips said. She added the city is also in the middle of negotiating a lease extension to 2020 for newly remodeled Dixieline Lumber at 3250 Sports Arena Blvd.
“I feel the city has been less than forthcoming with this group in terms of its future plans (for the Sports Arena),” Kenton said, adding, “I understand you’re not obligated to share anything with us. But a lot of us have significant investments in residences, businesses or properties, and we’re not getting anything back from the city in terms of what it’s thinking about.”
City officials responded that they weren’t holding back information, adding that they will continue to apprise the group of new real estate developments as they arise.
The planing group meets at 3 p.m. the third Wednesdays of the month at West City Campus, 3249 Fordham St.