City of Calgary considers 4 green spaces as potential public pot consumption sites

The City of Calgary is looking for input on four proposed public cannabis consumption sites.

Citizens are being asked to go online with feedback or to fill out information at the various locations. Input will be collected from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

Under the city’s Cannabis Consumption Bylaw, effective Oct. 17, it will be illegal to consume cannabis in any form in public places. This includes smoking, vaping or edibles.

Four green spaces in three communities are being considered as exceptions to this bylaw; two in Inglewood and one each in Bridgeland and Ogden.

The Inglewood addresses are at 11 Avenue S.E. between 11 and 12 Streets, and the green space adjacent to Wildlands parking lot on 9 Avenue S.E. past 22 Street.

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In Bridgeland, the proposed location is in Murdoch Park on the southern end of 7A Street N.E.

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In Ogden, the city is looking at the green space north of the shopping plaza at Glenmore Trail And Ogden Road. S.E.

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According to a release from the City of Calgary Monday morning, “potential designated cannabis consumption areas are measured through criteria which address the location’s accessibility, safety, and proximity to sensitive land uses.”

The city states all locations must have specific separation distances including:

• 150 m from a school
• 100 m from areas intensively used by children, including playgrounds, sport fields, spaces with play amenities, or family-friendly attractions
• Not within off-leash areas
• Not within a sensitive natural area
• Not in an area where other site users must pass to access another part of the site (e.g. pathways or park entrance)
• 30 m from any safety hazards
• 30 m from residences

The proposed cannabis consumption areas will have a defined radius and there will be both garbage cans and tamper-proof ashtrays on site.

LISTEN: Calgary Cannabis Club’s Christopher Schreiber joins Calgary Today to discuss the challenges with public consumption sites

Matt Zabloski, lead at the City of Calgary Cannabis Legalization Project, said with the criteria taken into consideration, there were very few spaces open for consideration.

All four of the proposed sites are within the boundaries of Ward 9 in Calgary.

The Ward 9 representative said it’s important to have these conversations with the public.

“I suspect me being the only councillor to raise his hand when asked by administration is the result, partially, of the timing,” he said. “This dropped at the very end of July amidst all the legislative work we were doing then, plus the fact that I’m politically right in the middle of this issue: supportive of legalization but also of not throwing the barn doors wide open.”

Ward 8 Coun. Evan Woolley pushed for city-wide use to limit the concentration of cannabis into a single space. He thinks only having a handful of areas around the city to smoke weed is not a good decision.

“I had advocated that you should be able to walk down the sidewalk and have rules similar to smoking cigarettes,” he said. “That would allow for the diffusion of consumption across the city.”

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“I think if I was a young family or some friends that were out to play Frisbee, and you have a park packed with people from all over the city coming to smoke marijuana in your park, that wouldn’t be a great place for me to recreate if I wasn’t interested in that.”

Wooley said his communities are often “underserved by parks” and that spreading out pot use across the city could cause fewer problems.

Overall, it’s about people behaving responsibly, he said.

“While I appreciate that everyone who does consume wants to have a space to do so, I would say that if they acted with great discretion, they probably won’t be given too hard of a time,” Wooley said.

According to the release, the city plans to monitor response to the potential locations after approval and could take away their cannabis consumable designation.

“The City of Calgary may suspend locations should there be safety or nuisance concerns.”

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— With files from Carolyn Kury de Castillo