[Editor’s Note: The former chair of the Chamber of Commerce addressed the City Council on Monday evening on looming perils with the arrival of legalized retail marijuana sales in Culver City.]

Two weeks ago you extended the public comment period for 120 days for the Inglewood Oil Field, after years of consideration.

The Oil Field folks should hire HdL and the cannabis industry as expediters.

There is no reason for being among the first cities in the region to allow retail dispensaries next to residential, given the reports provided to the Task Force and subsequently Council members regarding increases in crime, increases in traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities, and increased use amongst our teenagers.

Your job is to make findings that support the safety, health and welfare of our community.

Voters approved legal use.

Residents can grow their own, get deliveries or shop at the dispensaries that will be along our L.A. borders.

You can reduce neighborhood parking intrusion, avoid stigmatizing parts of the city, and encourage safer and more responsible adult use and still ensure easy access simply through delivery.

This not an Apple store.

It doesn’t belong where you are suggesting. Instead of banning it from shopping centers, if you think it’s such a good retail use, put it in shopping centers, not neighborhood-adjacent storefronts.

They have better parking, better foot traffic and better lighting.

• Beverly Hills — delivery only, Inglewood- delivery only,
• Hermosa Beach, Hawthorne, El Segundo, Redondo Beach are all amongst the nearby cities who have decided to hold off on any retail dispensaries.

Don’t cloud your judgement in not waiting to at least see what L.A. does and what the outcomes are in other cities.

In Colorado, Washington and other states that have legal use, university, health department, law enforcement and insurance industry research, which you’ve received, show an increase in crime in the area immediately surrounding dispensaries, an increase in car accidents, an increase in use by children and young adults who live closest.

You should be concerned.

This is a risk to public health and safety. Your police don’t disagree.

Dozens of your residents have made comments during these months… at least wait and see what happens around Culver City before licensing storefronts.

You’ve had the fortitude to extend the decisions on the oil field for years…

With net projected revenue from retail less than half of one percent of the city’s budget, have the sense to address retail in due course separately from the rest of the uses.