LONGVIEW — A marijuana store operating in Woodland despite the city’s ban on cannabis sales is hoping to change the city’s mind.
20After4 was served a notice Oct. 25 by Woodland’s code enforcement, which ordered the store to stop marijuana sales. The notice said that in addition to violating the city’s ban on retail marijuana, the business had been operating without a city business license since it opened in May.
Store owner John Stoehr filed an appeal in November and applied for the business license at the same time. Stoehr said he and his business were given no choice about violating the city’s ban after his business had to relocate out of the way of the South Kelso Railroad Crossing Project.
“I did what the state and city asked me to do, move out of that building and find somewhere else,” Stoehr said.
The city will hold an appeal hearing at 1 p.m. Jan. 4 where Stoehr will publicly make his case. Woodland City Administrator Pete Boyce declined to comment ahead of the appeal hearing.
Kelso gave Stoehr’s business a $40,800 relocation payment in April in order for the city to negotiate a land purchase deal with the building’s owner. Kelso’s community development director Michael Kardas said given the payment and the months of advance notice the city provided about the move, it was “a little inaccurate” to say 20After4 had been forced out by the project.
Once the move was initiated, Stoehr ran into a bureaucratic Catch-22. In Washington, marijuana retail licenses have to stay within their local jurisdiction if they change locations. All of the licenses available for Kelso and Longview had been claimed, which left no local spaces for the business that had previously been in unincorporated Cowlitz County.
The state Liquor and Cannabis Board permitted 20After4 to relocate only to Castle Rock, Kalama or Woodland — all three of which have local bans on marijuana stores. Stoehr said he picked Woodland because it was the biggest of the three cities and might see spillover business from Clark County.
Stoehr said 20After4 had seen good business in the months between opening in Woodland and the notice to close. While he feels he can afford to keep paying the daily fine for violating the city’s marijuana ban, Stoehr hopes the City Council will change its mind about the ban in 2022.
In 2020, municipalities that permit stores to sell marijuana received a portion of the $15 million share of Washington’s marijuana revenue. The amount received from the fund depends on the local marijuana sales in that area.
“Woodland cannot close us down. They can only fine us and walk away from a share of the $15 million,” Stoehr said.
