The City of Vancouver has denied an appeal for a marijuana dispensary licence allegedly linked to the Sahota family, the notorious owners of the Balmoral, a Downtown Eastside building where residents were evicted last month due to “disgusting” conditions.
The city denied an application to open “Herban Legends” on Arbutus St. on Vancouver’s west side last year because the proposed location was within 230 metres of York House Little School.
City bylaws require a distance of at least 300 metres from schools, community centres and youth facilities.
WATCH: Balmoral hotel evictions
That decision was appealed to the board of variance, the city’s bylaw appeals body, but the original ruling was upheld.
The Herban Legends licence application bears the name Lachman Singh, also known as Larry.
He’s the manager of the Astoria, a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel owned by the Sahotas, according to Ajantha Dharmapla, one of the family’s former employees.
“Actually, he doesn’t want to come to this hearing. The Sahotas put his name on this application while he was out of the country,” Dharmapla claimed.
“He didn’t know about this. But now he worries about his family and losing his job.”
Singh refused to answer questions from media outside city hall.
The Sahotas own numerous SROs in the Downtown Eastside, including the Regent and the Balmoral.
The city shuttered the Balmoral in June for what it described as overwhelming safety violations and a risk of collapse.
Activists staged a protest against the Sahota family outside Vancouver City Hall on Wednesday night.
“I live at the Astoria where Larry is the manager. I don’t think he should run a pot store because he can’t run a building,” said a man who gave his name as Jeremy.
“The city knows that the Sahotas are behind this application even though their names are not on it. We are angry about how they do business in this city,” Wendy Pedersen told a small crowd.
Activists say the city has tolerated deplorable conditions in the Sahotas’ properties for decades. They’re vowing to hold the landlords to account.
CKNW has reached out to Kirk Tousaw, the lawyer in charge of the pot shop appeal.
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