Pot shops applications have finally made it to Kelowna city council.

Four months after the citysa国际传媒檚 deadline for site rezoning applications, and six months after recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada, seven applicationssa国际传媒攆or stores on Bernard Avenue, Glenmore Road, Gordon Drive, Rutland Road South, Springfield Road and two on Harvey Avenuesa国际传媒攁re on Mondaysa国际传媒檚 council agenda for discussion.

They are the first crop of applications for legal cannabis retail operations in the city. If they get the green light, the applications will go to public headings next month before final approval by council.

City staff have said they do not expect stores to be open in the city before the end of spring.

The city received 41 applications for retail cannabis stores last fall, dramatically lower than the sa国际传媒渉undredssa国际传媒� planning staff originally expected. Of those, 31 were sent to special sa国际传媒渧ettingsa国际传媒� committee the city set up, which included planning staff, RCMP and city bylaw representatives. The vetting process took two months.

In February, the city announced 15 applications would be forwarded to council, including five selected in a lottery.

The lottery winners were picked from applications judged to be of similar merit but proposed for locations close to each other.

The city has set location criteria for stores, including minimum distances from schools, parks and other stores selling cannabis.

City planning staff said the simplest applications would be considered first, with the ones requiring more work to be presented to council at a later date.

The cost of applying for a rezoning for a store selling cannabis was set at $10,495sa国际传媒�$1,000 to apply and $9,495 if the application is forwarded for consideration. By comparison, most other rezoning applications in Kelowna cost between $1,000 and $1,800.

In addition to the bill for rezoning, once a store is up and running, the operator will be required to obtain city business licence at an additional cost of $8,000 per year. Retailers must also have a licence from the province to operate a store.

Last month, the city said identified the following sites as possible locations for cannabis retail stores:

sa国际传媒� 547-559 Bernard Avenue

sa国际传媒� 401 Glenmore Road

sa国际传媒� 140-160 Rutland Rd S

sa国际传媒� 3818 Gordon Drive

sa国际传媒� 2090 Harvey Avenue

sa国际传媒� 1455-1475 Harvey Avenue

sa国际传媒� 2121 Springfield Road

sa国际传媒� 1675-1677 Commerce Avenue

sa国际传媒� 2339-2397 Hwy 97 North

sa国际传媒� 1977 Kirschner Road

sa国际传媒� 1310 St. Paul Street

sa国际传媒� 889 Vaughan Avenue

sa国际传媒� 175 Old Vernon Road

sa国际传媒� 2053, 2065 & 2115 Rutland Court

sa国际传媒� 1100 Lawrence Avenue

sa国际传媒� 5505-5507 Airport Way.