August 31, 2023

Dear stakeholders,

The Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) realizes that you are busy. As a courtesy, DCR would like to remind you of a few deadlines and clarify some important items.

Points of clarification:

• Fee deferrals for pre-app and temporary applications were available to Social Equity Applicants pursuing a State provisional license between March 1, 2023 until July 31, 2023. 

• Fee waiver credits have been applied to records associated with Applicants selected in the Phase 3 Retail Round 2 (P3RR2) lottery. The fee waiver credit may be used toward Pre-Application, Application, Legal Business Entity Record, Equity Share Review, and other DCR services associated with a P3RR2 record.

• Draft Notices of Exemption (NOE) to satisfy CEQA requirements for the State provisional license renewal process were sent out in August to all Applicants and Licensees by email. These draft NOE letters were issued so Applicants and Licensees are able to  renew an existing State provisional license. The draft NOE letters are not final and will NOT satisfy the State’s Annual License Application requirements. See a sample NOE here. 

• 2024 Renewal Process: The 2024 renewal process begins on September 2. A detailed communication with renewal instructions will be sent soon. During this year’s renewal process, all Applicants and Licensees must: (1) submit a renewal application on the DCR Licensing Portal; (2) pay the required renewal fee(s); (3) submit updated documents to their Legal Business Entity Record (records with the prefix LA-B); (4) provide current contact information to their Legal Business Entity Record (records with the prefix LA-B); and (5) ensure that the following documents are up-to-date and uploaded to their Annual License Application record (with the suffix -ANN): Indemnification Agreement (LIC-4005-FORM); Project Description Questionnaire; (LIC-4013-FORM); current Business Premises diagram; and, executed lease or property deed.

Upcoming Deadlines:

• The Temporary Approval and record renewal cycle begins on Saturday, September 2nd and closes on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Licensees will receive emails with further instructions. 

Please reach out to DCR at (213) 978-0738 or email DCRLicensing@lacity.org with any questions.

DCR’s Public Counter is available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 PM. DCR is located at 221 N Figueroa St, Suite 1245, Los Angeles, CA 90012.