The possible location of Capitol Hill’s first pot shop. (Photo: CHS)
An I-502 lottery winner is setting his sights on a 15th Ave E and E Republican location to open Capitol Hill’s first retail marijuana shop.
According to the state liquor board, Samuel Burke has submitted an application for a retail marijuana permit for the space currently occupied by the Capitol Hill Animal Clinic.
The application lists the same trade name Burke used to enter the I-502 lottery at the 15th Ave E location. In July, Burke told the Seattle Times that he settled on an unspecified location for his shop after hitting snags in two other places.
CHS tried to contact Burke, but the phone number listed on his I-502 application has been disconnected.
Dated November 14th, the application notification gives the City of Seattle twenty days to respond:
Under I-502, City Hall has 20 days to file any written objections to the application, including raising concerns about the proposed shop’s proximity to schools, parks, or community centers.
Uncle Ike’s at 23rd and Union is currently the closest I-502 shop to Capitol Hill, and is doing quite well despite an ongoing lawsuit from the neighboring Mount Calvary Christian Center. Under state liquor board rules, Seattle has been allocated 21 I-502 retailer licenses.
A 1,000 ft buffer, and the properties it touches, around Burke’s proposed location. (Image: King County parcel viewer).
A small stretch of 15th Ave E on north Capitol Hill has been seen by some as a promising alcove for I-502 shops as it appears to meet the state’s 1,000-foot buffer rule. Last year CHS wrote about an I-502 retail license application at 518 15th Ave E, a location that was eventually snatched up by Nuflours vegan bakery.
The 15th Ave E location is currently occupied by longtime tenant the Capitol Hill Animal Clinic and has been home to a veterinarian for decades. An employee at the clinic said she was not aware of the application.
UPDATE: The Seattle Police Department contacted CHS about the application saying “if anyone has any questions or concerns about this retail location” SPD asks that they contact the East Precinct Community Police Team at (206) 684-4370.
Isn’t that location a little close to Lowell School?
Lowell School is over 1,000 feet away, according to the King County Parcel Viewer: http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/
You can search for the address, select Advanced Tools > Buffer Selected Parcels, and type in 1,000 feet to select all properties within that distance.
thanks for the tip! I’ll fiddle around on the website tonight when I get home from work.
There are plenty of locations to open a pot shop up on
Capitol Hill and it’s disgusting and embarrassing that a lottery winner would try to take a long-time veterinary clinic’s space to set up shop. As a life long Seattleite I’m beginning to get more and more disappointed in this city. I have nothing against pot, but renovations like this take away the diversity of the city that I’ve known and loved. Taking away part of a community to build another pot store? Find another location! Save the Capitol Hill Animal Clinic!
By my calculation, there are less than ten properties on Capitol Hill that could pass the zoning restrictions placed on pot shops.
What do you mean “another pot store?” There aren’t any on Capitol Hill.
If they build this one, it’ll be part of the community too, and generate lots of tax $$ for the State.
“An employee at the clinic said she was not aware of the application.”
So based only on this information, why do you conclude they’re ‘taking away a long-time veterinary clinic’s space’? Did anyone ask the clinic, “Are you guys moving? Do you own this space? If not, has anyone approached you to buy out your lease? Has your landlord notified you the lease won’t be renewed?”. Based on only this, all you know is the employee ‘isn’t aware of the application’. That tells you almost nothing.
yeah…I don’t think there’s any reason to think that the space is being “taken away” from CHAC.
Not excited in the least to have that spot become a pot shop, but there’s no reason to imagine a hostile takeover.
So now all our veterinarians are being forcibly replaced by pot shops? WELCOME TO OBAMA’S AMERICA
Are you able to breathe on your own being so stupid, Weeberton?
Has to be a trolling/joke. Nobody is REALLY that stupid……are they?
I kid, I kid!
you kid? you kid? then I apologize! I apologize!
It’s just too damn hard to catch a sarcasm online.
I agree, Jim. More information is needed before any conclusion can be made as to why the CHAC is moving, or closing.
It’s kind of endemic to this blog– so many people fly off the handle jumping to conclusions and inferring way more than they should, based on only the information presented. All I can say is– if I ever got into any trouble I sure hope they wouldn’t be on my jury.
I’m guessing the veterinary clinic is going away regardless of who the next resident of the building is unless the building’s owner just wants to have a pot shop there.
If a pot store is moving into that location, it would have to be for only a very small number of reasons: either the clinic has not renewed its lease with the property owner, and unless Burke himself is the property owner, then he can’t just kick out an existing business. And if he IS the property owner, well then he can do whatever the hell he wants with his own property, assuming he’s not illegally breaching his lease agreement with the tenant.
And by my count there are a half dozen other vets and animal clinics within a mile-radius of this location, while the number of other pot stores in that same radius = zero. So, it’s not like this would be a devastating loss to the community; you’ll just have to go a few thousand feet further to get little Fluffy’s nails trimmed, is all.
Commercial leases are not like residential tenants. When the lease is up the landlord can indeed kick out the business, even if he isn’t going to use the space for his own business.
I’m excited to finally get a pot shop within walking distance! Can’t wait!
Just pointing out that just a few short years ago the only Capitol Hill vet options were CHAC and the unbelievably pricey Broadway Animal Clinic (on 12th, of course). The current wealth of veterinary options is quite recent – and possibly a reason for CHAC’s imminent/alleged departure.
“As a life long Seattleite I’m beginning to get more and more disappointed in this city. I have nothing against pot, but renovations like this take away the diversity of the city that I’ve known and loved.”
Obviously you DO have something against pot. I guranatee you wouldn’t say the same thing if a daycare wanted to open in this spot.
“As a life long Seattleite I’m beginning to get more and more disappointed in this city. I have nothing against pot, but renovations like this take away the diversity of the city that I’ve known and loved.”
I am at a loss by this statement. Wouldn’t embracing the new industry, that we as a state have chosen to be on the forefront of, be a direct reflection of our willingness to be diverse?
What about “Pepe’s Garden”? I have no clue what it is but it shows up as a green park on Google Maps (Approx. 900ft as the crow flies).
Pepe’s Garden is private property. http://info.kingcounty.gov/Assessor/eRealProperty/Dashboard.aspx?ParcelNbr=6851700255
Thanks for showing that the location is clear. The main question now is does the applicant have a right to the space and is the old tenant leaving?
There is an ironic double standard that breathless anti-weed forces conveniently ignore …for example, a small business park on Bainbridge Island, just off Sportsman Club Rd NE, houses a brewery (Bainbridge Brewing–that allows kids btw); a distillery (Bainbridge Organic Distillers–which has an attached tasting room); and a winery (Fletcher Bay Winery–also w/ tasting room). All of these fine local businesses are located no more than 500 ft across the street from the Sakai Intermediate School, which “serves fifth and sixth grade students.”
What’s wrong with that? I’d say nothing, as I’ve been to Bainbridge Brewery many times & have only rarely observed rowdy, drunken toddlers (admittedly one of the scariest things in life, and which is clearly a major problem all over Washington State; hence, our fenced beer garden rules). But aside from that, it’s tough if not impossible for kids to get served or buy, cheat or steal their way into these shops selling local fermented fruits.
Why the continuing, hypocritical double standard for pot? From what I’ve seen, no kid will ever be able to get into the state pot shops, so why pretend that we need this artificial buffer zone? Our legislature can & should act to strike down this ridiculous, puritanical & just-plain-stupid requirement. Our goal should be to grow the regulated marijuana industry so that the criminal & especially violent cartel elements can be eliminated. Can that be accomplished? Absolutely, as was done with organized crime following the end of alcohol prohibition in this country.
Hear, hear!
The 1000 foot rule comes from federal guidelines. They had been raiding medical marijuana dispenseries within 1000′ of schools as a way to close them down. When the specific rules for the pot shops in our state were being formulated, the LCB (or the legislature – I don’t remember which) tried to define the 1000′ rule as a person walks rather than as the crow flies. When this was proposed, they got a letter from the DOJ promising retaliation against this change. For Washington to soften or remove the 1000 foot rule, the federal government will have to soften their drug policy.
The Stranger published a map a while back from the City’s department of development and planning. According to their map, the only nearby location available for a recreational marijuana shop is 23rd and Union.
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-few-little-pot-districts/Content?oid=16460536
How about the former location of Salon Ciba? Unless someone has already leased the space, the storefront is empty. A quick look at King County’s GIS system shows that it is more than 1000′ away from St. Joseph’s School, Lowell, Miller Park, and William’s Place. Unless I’m mistaken, that location would be suitable as long as the landlord is interested.
Parkside School looks to be within the 1000 feet but hard to tell on that map. 630 12th Ave E.
Parkside School is not within 1,000 feet of this property, according to the King County Parcel Viewer: http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/
it would be as the crow flies, but as Mark pointed out yesterday, it’s as a person travels. According to Google it’s 1,584 feet from one to the other.
Either way you measure it, Parkside School is over 1,000 feet from this location. The measure is point to point, or “as the crow flies.”
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