Retail marijuana store’s sign of contention

The owner of the Have a Heart retail marijuana business in Ocean Shores is challenging a city attempt to have him take down a sign on an existing readerboard outside the facility on Ocean Shores Boulevard.

“When they make them take down the liquor store and beer signs in town, I’ll take mine down,” said Ryan Kunkel, one of the owners of the new store that opened recently at 668 Ocean Shores Blvd. NW.

Kunkel said he talked with the city building inspector at his store this week, showed him definitions of what was allowable under state Liquor Control Board regulations, and then called the Liquor Control Board for clarification. Still, he was unsure what the next step would be and the sign was still up.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Kunkel, who has a successful marijuana business in the Seattle area, said he believes his business is being unfairly singled out: “I have dealt with this in a lot of towns with a lot of other stores.”

The issue was raised Feb. 9 at the last Ocean Shores City Council meeting by Councilwoman Ginny Hill, who asked city attorney Brent Dille about the sign.

“I don’t know how many of you have noticed the recreational marijuana sign that’s newly posted,” Hill said.

“And the sign is huge,” she added.

When the council held meetings and a public hearing about the business last year, Hill said, the representation then was the sign would be “very small, unobtrusive and no one would even know they had a store there.”

According to Hill after talking with the city attorney, “That sign can be no more than 16 square inches.”

Kunkel said he intends to show the sign is in compliance.

The dimensions that Hill referred to, he explained, pertain to the signage that is allowed on the business structure itself.

“But the readerboard is not part of my business premises. So I am allowed under advertising rules to put up billboards or be on readerboards,” he said.

Here’s what Have a Heart noted from the Liquor Control Board:

“Can my property owner place advertising on their reader board? In other words, sign on my business AND sign on strip mall reader-board at edge of parking lot?”

Answer: “Yes. This would be permissible if the second sign would not be located on the premises.”