A narrow, lawful fix: bring Yakima's cannabis buffer down toward the 100 feet State law already allows, so two social-equity licensees can finally open. Schools and playgrounds stay protected at 1,000 ft.
José & Jorge Ulloa, two brothers, Washington State social-equity retail licensees, raised in the Yakima Valley.
The detail is below: the map, the study, the record. But the decision is right here.
The whole story is on the map: the minefield that denied me, the invisible daycares, the City's 500-ft recommendation, and where 100 feet would finally let a licensee open. Tap 1 → 2 → 3 → 4.
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Navy is where the State buffer forbids a store; green is the only zoning where one is allowed. Schools and playgrounds stay locked at 1,000 ft. This shows only the public buffers; the City also blocks sites for in-home daycares no map is allowed to show.
Yakima's stores were licensed years before the equity round. By the time these licenses existed, the sites that work were already taken; not just the best ones, the only ones.
Commercial real estate remains, but the 1,000-ft buffers, especially the in-home daycares hidden in the neighborhoods, put nearly all of it off-limits. This is the wall the Council can lower.
Some sites that remain have sat empty for four years, yet the owners won't lease to cannabis. That's their right. But it shrinks an already narrow map to almost nothing.
The Council can't move the other stores or change an owner's mind. It can do the one thing that widens the map, reduce the buffer, so that among the sites and owners that are willing, some land finally qualifies.
Yakima's commercial streets are thin ribbons with houses directly behind them. An in-home daycare is licensed inside a private home, in that residential band. A 1,000-ft buffer reaches into it; a 100-ft buffer stays on the commercial lot, where a store belongs.
In-home daycare locations are legally confidential. City staff have said the data "changes daily" and they can't see it either. So a compliant applicant is aiming at a target no one is allowed to look at, that moves without notice.
Everything requested is written into RCW 69.50.331 and WAC 314-55-050, and East Wenatchee ran this exact process in January 2025 with no adverse safety finding.
For fifty years, the same federal authorities that called cannabis the most dangerous class of drug (Schedule I, "no accepted medical use") held that line. In 2026 they reversed it: the U.S. Department of Health and the FDA found cannabis has an accepted medical use, and the Department of Justice moved medical cannabis to Schedule III. The fear was theirs to create, and theirs to walk back. If the federal government can follow the evidence and change course, a city can too.
Cannabis is not for everyone, and it is never for children. I agree with the State: 21 and over, no exceptions. A licensed store is the hardest place in Yakima for a minor to get cannabis: every customer's ID is scanned.
It's the law, and it's the real safeguard: age, not distance, is what keeps minors out. A licensed store is stricter than any neighborhood.
The strictest protection, where children actually gather, stays untouched. This request never changes it.
I'm a State-certified Medical Cannabis Consultant, and that's the whole idea: this is a medical cannabis store, built to serve patients. I intend to give my staff the same training, so the people on the floor are qualified to guide safe use.
The storefront and its marketing will meet every WAC standard: nothing designed to catch a child's eye, and no cannabis imagery. 21 and over, inside and out.
We guide each person to use only what they need. A customer who feels better and buys less is a success to us.
Not a slogan. Specific things a real, local business does:
Hired here, with priority for the communities most harmed by the war on drugs. That's who the social-equity license is for.
The City already collects cannabis tax, but only from the stores that are open. The two social-equity licenses aren't open, so today they bring in nothing. Opening them adds two more tax-paying businesses, plus local jobs and in-city sales.
A commercial space that's sat empty for years becomes a taxpaying business, in the very areas the City voted to invest in. At 100 feet, 623 eligible sites open inside those areas.
I'm not an out-of-town operator. I was raised in this valley, I'll hire from it, and I'll answer to the community the store sits in, in person, for as long as it's open.
A licensed, well-lit store that scans ID replaces a seller who checks no ID, pays no tax, and answers to no one. That's safer for Yakima, not less.
Cannabis is medicine to a great many people in this valley. The State asked the Ulloa brothers to open here and granted the licenses to do it. After nearly four years of trying, this is not a request to bend a rule; it's a request to use the one the law already wrote, so the city's own social-equity licensees can finally open. Yakima, your brothers are ready. Help us open.
This page updates as the process moves.