San Bruno eases dispensary rules

“These commonsense updates align San Bruno cannabis regulation with state law … allowing us to serve our customers, and by extension, the whole community,” he said. “These three amendments before you tonight are to ensure our operations serve the community as efficiently and sensitively as possible.”

The San Bruno Planning Commission voted against allowing signs reading the word “dispensary” earlier this month, Community Development Director Peter Gilli said.

“The perspective of the commission was they believe the intent of the original cannabis signage was that business and signage be as discreet as possible, not to stand out or draw attention,” he said.

It was the opinion of the City Council, however, that the new signs were adequately discreet and could positively benefit the business.

“They’re asking to allow this one word to help people know what their business is about. If we can take this single action to help them improve their sales, we should do that,” Councilmember Tom Hamilton said. “We are talking about keeping signage for dispensary discrete to the point of uselessness, when our many vape shops around town are permitted to, and do, have LED lights that could be seen from space.”

Multiple community members spoke at the council meeting to vouch for Embarc, its business practices and the fact that it deserved the new updates.

“I want to underscore how rare it is to see a cannabis employer operates with the kind of integrity and accountability that Embarc brings to every community they serve,” Julie Lind, San Mateo County Labor Council executive officer, said.

Under the same motion, the City Council also voted to clean up its transit corridor zoning. Parcels in the transit corridor, including the Civic Center, previously zoned as planned development districts will now be zoned in alignment with mixed-use development policies.