Oceanside’s City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday to create two more openings for cannabis in-store retail licenses in the city.
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The decision resolves a three-way tie among applicants for what would have been the fourth and last available license, and increases the total available to six. So far none of Oceanside’s proposed cannabis dispensaries has opened.
City staffers initially proposed a public lottery to resolve the tie, said Senior Planner Dane Thompson. However, they suspended that process after the three applicants sent a joint letter to city officials requesting that all three be allowed to pursue individual licenses.
Once granted a license, the applicant then must apply for a conditional use permit and has one year to get the City Council’s approval or the license is revoked. After getting the permit, the applicant has an additional 18 months for the retail store to become operational, or the license is revoked.
If any of the three applicants fails to open an operational store, that license will be lost and unavailable to another applicant, Thompson said. If two of the three applicants fail to open, the city reverts to its cap of four retail licenses established in August 2025.
“It’s in the city’s best interest to allow all the three ties to move forward,” said Daniel Firtel, CEO and majority owner of Oceanside Retail Opco LLC. The other companies in the tie are Embarc and Green Venture Farms.
“It doesn’t guarantee that one gets to open,” Firtel said. “As you look at other cities around California, rarely if ever do all the locations actually open. This gives the city the best chance to have four. It also mitigates the risk of potential lawsuits from the people who don’t get what they want.”
The council voted 3-2 for the resolution, with Mayor Ester Sanchez and Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa voting no.
Sanchez has generally opposed the city’s cannabis legalization efforts in the past. She said she’s seen too many young people go from using marijuana to problems with harder drugs.
“”Please consider that we are putting our youth at risk,” Sanchez said to the council.
Several representatives of the Vista Community Clinic, which has drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs, opposed the additional licenses.
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It’s important to recognize that the city’s cannabis policies affect young people, said Carina Delgado, a program manager at the clinic.
Greater retail availability normalizes the use and exposes more young people to cannabis, Delgado said, adding that young people who use cannabis are at a greater risk of developing mental health disorders and drug addictions later in life.
Tamara Rozmus, an attorney representing the three applicants already granted retail licenses — Noble Victory, MedLeaf, and March and Ash — asked the city to keep the cap at four and use a lottery to select the remaining recipient.
The three selected so far have made made financial investments and commitments based on the expected approval of four licenses, Rozmus said, and the commercial real estate available to the applicants is limited.
Councilmember Eric Joyce said the city should consider adding Coast Highway to the locations where cannabis dispensaries are allowed.
“It does take them away from some of our underserved neighborhoods that we are trying to avoid,” Joyce said.
The city’s ordinance allows the shops only in some commercial and industrial areas. They are prohibited in all areas west of Coast Highway, anywhere in the downtown district, the Mission San Luis Rey Commercial Village area and master planned communities.
Oceanside first legalized medical marijuana in 2018. Since then it has gradually expanded its licensing program. In 2020, the City Council approved the first delivery-only retail sales. Also that year, it agreed to allow recreational cannabis businesses.
The council majority agreed in 2023 to create two licenses for walk-in retail shops and possibly a third if the city’s one operating delivery-only license holder could qualify for it. Later the council decided to offer up to four retail licenses and prioritize the two existing operators.
So far, the city has issued more than 20 licenses for a variety of cannabis-related businesses, from cultivation and manufacturing to off-site distribution. Only a handful are active.
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