Adobe stock photo
The Hoover City Council this week approved new licensing requirements and fees for businesses that sell consumable hemp products, such as CBD oils and edibles and infused beverages.
The council raised licensing fees from a fee based on the previous year’s volume of sales to a flat $2,000 fee per business, despite objections from one CBD store owner.
B.J. Autry, the owner of the Sunmed CBD store in the Lake Crest Plaza shopping center off John Hawkins Parkway, said the past two years his license fee for the city of Hoover was about $400 per year, and this new ordinance increases that amount by five times for him.
The city’s fee also is on top of the $1,000 licensing fee that his business must pay to the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for a state license. Autry said Hoover’s extra $2,000 is very punitive.
The original ordinance that the Hoover City Council advertised called for a $500 fee, but Councilwoman Khristi Driver recommended that be raised to $2,000, saying that a new state law gives Hoover more authority to regulate such businesses and that Hoover therefore has additional responsibilities for monitoring and enforcing the regulations that exist for these types of businesses. The higher fee will help cover the cost of such enforcement, she said.
Hoover has decided to treat businesses that sell consumable hemp products much like businesses that sell alcoholic beverages and is adopting the same location requirements. State regulations require businesses selling alcoholic beverages to be at least 500 feet from any church or public school, so those same distance requirements will be in effect for businesses that sell consumable hemp products, City Attorney Charlie Waldrep said.
Any business seeking to sell consumable hemp products also must get specific approval from the Hoover City Council, similar to the process for businesses that sell alcoholic beverages.
It also is illegal to sell, serve or possess consumable hemp products in any city school buildings and grounds, city playgrounds, school playgrounds, city parks, city athletic fields and grounds, or recreation buildings, excluding any private recreation rooms that are leased or rented.
The new city ordinance also makes it illegal to consume hemp products at any establishment licensed to sell them and illegal to consume or possess consumable hemp products at any establishments licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises.
In other business Tuesday, the Hoover City Council:
- Approved a $29,089 contract with Stryker for that company to perform preventative maintenance on the Hoover Fire Department’s emergency medical equipment, such as Lifepak defibrillators, stretchers and stretcher loading systems for vehicles.
- Approved an agreement that sets reimbursement fees for the Hoover Fire Department transporting patients from the Baptist Health Brookwood stand-alone emergency department on Alabama 119 to Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital. The fees will vary between $647 to $769, depending on the level of care provided, plus $14.01 per mile.
- Set a public hearing for June 8 to consider rezoning recently annexed property at 3960 South Shades Crest Road as an R-1 single-family residential district
- Set a public hearing for June 8 to consider a request to allow a Dogtopia dog day care in the Bazaar 280 shopping center near the corner of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119
- Set a public hearing for June 8 to consider a request to expand the number of children allowed at a home day care at 3599 Deerfield Drive from six children to 12. The request was met with opposition from some neighbors and comes to the council without a recommendation from the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:04 p.m. to remove smokable hemp products as an allowable product. Smokable hemp was made illegal last year.
