Fifty-one months after the City Council voted to explore allowing legal retail marijuana sales in Manteca, the first storefront dispensary has opened.
Off the Charts Manteca is now open in a small business park at 2325 West Yosemite Avenue across the street from the municipal wastewater treatment plant.
It is the first of three concerns the council has granted permits to open in Manteca.
Redundant security measures required by the city are in place.
Only those 21 and older can access the dispensary open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Driver’s license cards are scanned in the lobby before customers are cleared to access the dispensary.
Off the Charts now has five locations including San Francisco, Monterey, Antioch, and Riverbank.
The other Manteca dispensaries yet to open are:
*Nectar Markets of California is locating in the former Golden Bear Physical Therapy space in the 1500 block of West Yosemite behind Valley Oak Dental.
*Embarc is going in a small center on South Main Street across from Walmart and Denny’s.
The three store openings will also be felt by the general Manteca community even if they don’t use cannabis.
That’s because the three concerns, based on community benefit agreements (CBA), will likely end up sending in excess of $2 million annually into municipal coffers to support general fund services as well as donations to Manteca-based nonprofits.
That assumes each concern does $10 million worth of business in Manteca a year and agreed upon minimum guarantees, the city could see $2 million and community based non-profits $350,000.
To put that in perspective, $2 million is 2.7 percent of this fiscal year’s general fund revenue projection of $72.9 million.
Each concern also agreed to provide the city with license plate readers that will scan vehicles entering their respective lots.
Such scanners signal law enforcement when they read a plate that is registered to a vehicle that had been reported stolen or is connected to a crime.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
