Tuesday, April 9, 2019 ~ SOOKE
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
There could be as many as four cannabis retail outlets in Sooke.
As part of a zoning public hearing last night at Sooke Council, there are four locations — three of them presently (or recently) in operation to sell cannabis — that fall within the C2 or C4 commercial recreation zones.
Presently operating are Castle Naturals at 6309 Sooke Road (same property as Castle Liquor Store beyond town centre near the Sooke Bridge), and 642 Cannabis at 6686 Sooke Road in town centre at Townsend Road.
Presently not operating is Sooke Medijuana at 6691 Sooke Road (corner of Murray Road in town centre). Those three businesses have applied to the province for licencing.
A fourth location that falls within the required zoning is 5449 Sooke Road where Stickleback Eatery operates their restaurant as well as an outdoor recreation college. If they set up for retail cannabis, that would be a separate business on the property. Some public input and at least one Councillor had concerns about this location at the ‘gateway’ to Sooke (for westbound traffic approaching Sooke from Victoria/Langford) giving the wrong impression about Sooke. Before last night’s meeting, 5549 Sooke Road property owner Scot Taylor had not yet applied to the government for retail cannabis licencing, pending the outcome of Sooke Council’s decision.
The Monday April 8 meeting of Sooke Council started at 7 pm and was apparently taped but the audience was told at the start of the meeting that there would not be a livecast due to “technical difficulties”.
There was a full audience of about 70 people, many there for the Highway 14 widening issue but also for the cannabis retail stores discussion.