Arcade technicality opened way for Capitol Hill’s first pot shop
Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015 – 10:48 am by Bryan Cohen
IMG_9802Add a few more to the twists and turns it has taken to get to Capitol Hill’s first pot shop. Meanwhile, the City of Seattle also is ready to propose new zoning rules around where pot shops, including those that have a Rosin Press (or products made with one) can be located.
Earlier this week, CHS reported that after a year in limbo, Samuel Burke finally received his I-502 license to open Tok, a pot shop at 15th Ave E and E Republican inside the space formerly occupied by Angel’s Shoe Repair.
It was an unexpected move form the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, as a video arcade across the street appeared to be preventing Burke from opening. According to state regulations, an I-502 retailer can’t open within 1,000-foot radius of a place where children typically gather, including arcades.
The city says Capitol Hill Family Arcade owner Ian Eisenberg never obtained an arcade permit.
“The City of Seattle informed the LCB that while the arcade has a business license they do not have all of the requisite permits to be considered an actual arcade and asked us to issue Tok a license,” LCB spokesperson Mikhail Carpenter told CHS. “Because the City of Seattle does not recognize the business as a bona fide arcade, the LCB issued the license to Tok.”
Eisenberg told CHS he wasn’t aware of the permit issue.
Eisenberg, who owns Uncle Ike’s pot shop at 23rd and Union, purchased the arcade building while Burke was making plans to open Tok in the same space. Eisenberg said he opened the arcade as a convenient placeholder while he waited for the next window to submit an I-502 application to open a second Uncle Ike’s location. Uncle Ike’s is a CHS advertiser.
In the meantime, the City is moving ahead with reducing the marijuana business buffer zone after the Legislature granted more local authority over pot zoning earlier this year. Under the Seattle proposal, the 1,000-foot rule would stay for schools and playgrounds, but would be reduced to 500 feet for places like child care centers, libraries, parks, and video arcades.
The city is also recommending that the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency be given the authority to set odor control standards for marijuana production and processing.