WSLCB - Board Meeting
(June 4, 2025) - Summary

The board established the power of the agency Director to initiate some rulemaking projects, heard about the social equity licensing window, and approved three rule actions.

Here are some observations from the Wednesday June 4th Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Meeting.

My top 6 takeaways:

• Board Chair Jim Vollendroff presented a proposal to delegate conditional authority to initiate rulemaking under specific circumstances without requiring a formal board vote (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • The agency had accrued both previously-accepted petitions for rulemaking along with rulemaking projects required by legislative action which contributed to repeated delays in 2024. Policy and Rules Manager Kevin Walder acknowledged the “backlog” of rulemaking work during the May 7th board meeting.
  • Vollendroff framed the change as empowering Director Will Lukela—or his designee—to initiate the first stage of agency rulemaking called a CR-101 ”under two specific circumstances.” First, if board members had already voted to accept a petition for rulemaking, and second, “when there’s been legislation that’s been passed…and signed by the Governor.” Vollendroff clarified that “all other requests [and later stages in rulemaking] would come to the board for approval.”
    • Vollendroff explained the proposal at greater length during the June 3rd board caucus, relating the move to "board efficiencies" he’d advocated for successfully in March. He argued that after accepting a petition, subsequently approving a CR-101 on the same topic was a “redundancy.” Vollendroff stated the conditional delegation would help the Policy and Rules staff begin rulemaking in a “timely manner” following the reduction in board meetings approved as part of the efficiency push (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Board Member Pete Holmes made a motion for the conditional delegation of authority, which was unanimously approved by board members (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• Case Manager Sarah Worley provided an update on the status of first round social equity program applicants and offered details about the second retail licensing application window midway through the first week of registration (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Staff last discussed the program with board members on May 14th.
  • Regarding the first round, Worley told the board that seven equity applicants had opened stores, while two retail title certificate holders had relocated their licenses out of jurisdictions with a cannabis ban or moratorium. She said 32 applicants remained pending, or “still in process to secure a license,” and three title certificate holders had yet to move to an accommodating jurisdiction.
    • Identified barriers applicants were dealing with included financing and finding a location that didn’t run afoul of buffer distances in statute.
  • Worley detailed how the second program “window for registration…opened on Monday, June 2, and it will be open for 30 days” before closing on July 1st. The program could offer a total of 69 retail licenses, she said, “52 additional cannabis retail licenses for social equity, [as well as] 17 existing licenses” returned to the agency through cancellation or forfeiture. She asked that those interested in applying use a WSLCB portal and highlighted the user guide provided by agency staff.
    • Worley reiterated that for applications with more than one person, majority ownership had to be held by persons meeting at least two criteria for the program in law. She noted other agency resources like the blog and frequently asked questions (FAQ) were worth reviewing.
    • Only after the application window closed in July would agency staff transmit applicant information to the third party firm, Alta Point Consulting. Alta Point staff would then send out information via email to applicants about how to submit documents used in scoring and prioritizing applications.
    • Worley concluded by sharing that there had been 182 applicants since the window opened on Monday.
      • During the corresponding update at the board caucus on Tuesday, Social Equity Program Manager Aaron Washington said 140 registrations had been received (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Vollendroff thanked Worley and her team for their work (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW). Both Garrett (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW) and Holmes sought clarification on how staff were distinguishing ‘open’ and ‘pending’ licenses (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• Policy and Rules Manager Kevin Walder provided an update on active rulemaking projects and mentioned staff coordination with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) on medical cannabis rules.
  • Walder indicated there were five rulemaking projects underway at the agency, and that the board would hear about two more projects based on previously-approved petitions (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Minors on Wholesale Licensed Premises (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW, Rulemaking Project)
    • Walder said Policy and Rules staff would host the first public hearing separate from a board meeting regarding this rulemaking project on Thursday June 5th, and the public comment window would close that day “at midnight.” He encouraged those who wished to speak to register with WSLCB through hearings@lcb.wa.gov.
    • Walder said that if the feedback didn’t lead to substantive changes, “we will then seek approval to file the CR-103 adoption at our next board meeting on June 18, and the rule will take effect 30 days later.”
  • Throughout July and August, Walder anticipated filing “seven more CR-101s,” on topics like implementation of SB 5403 “on cannabis retail agreements, the petition-driven [research and development] R&D rulemaking, and five remaining petition requests that’d been accepted, in some cases well over a year ago.” He further noted, “we plan to request approval for a CR-105 expedited rulemaking in August or possibly September, to implement the three remaining legislative bills that require rule making” related to alcohol. Walder said, “we plan to file” CR-101s “throughout the next couple of months to at least begin to clear the backlog of attending [to] petition driven rule making projects that we've already agreed to take on.”
    • At publication time, the following petitions had been accepted by the WSLCB Board:
      • COA Expiration Dates (Rulemaking Petition)
      • Harvest or Processing Date (Rulemaking Petition)
      • Heavy Metals Testing (Rulemaking Petition)
      • Lab Test Terminology [ Rulemaking Petition ]
      • Transporter Fulfillment Hub (Rulemaking Petition)
  • Walder indicated that agency representatives continued to stay in contact with DOH colleagues "regarding the medical cannabis product compliance rulemaking to ensure that there's consistency and alignment between agencies.” His understanding from department officials was that “the CR-102 proposal likely won't be released until sometime this fall” (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • He concluded by calling attention to coordination with DOH and the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in “appris[ing] them of our forthcoming R&D rule making” related to lab test terminology. This meant representatives from “those agencies will be…prepared to provide feedback to ensure alignment there,” said Walder (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• Policy and Rules Coordinator Jeff Kildahl reviewed the CR-101 package to initiate rulemaking concerning batch tracking of cannabis plants, a petition accepted by the board in October 2023 (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Kildahl described how the current regulation in WAC 314-55-083(4)(f) required “each cannabis plant that has grown to a height of eight inches tall, or eight inches wide to be physically tagged with a marker that provides a unique identifier for the plant that…must be tracked individually by the producer” through its growth and harvest.
  • The original petition by Anders Taylor of Sweet Leaf Growers “requested updates to that portion of the rule that would allow cannabis plants larger than eight inches tall or wide that are of the same strain, and are grown in the same growth stage, to be tracked in a batch as they are when they are smaller plants,” said Kildahl.
  • With board approval, Kildahl remarked that an informal comment period on the project would be open until July 17th. Additionally, “stakeholder meetings will be planned for later in the year, or in 2026 depending on the high volumes of the rulemaking that we have this summer and fall.”
  • Vollendroff was curious if there was a common practice related to batch tracking in other adult-use cannabis states. Kildahl knew the practice was permitted for cannabis production in Colorado and California, acknowledging, “I'm not sure about how the other states approach this, but we'll [reach] out and, and seeing how it's happened across the industry” (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Board members unanimously agreed to initiate the rulemaking project (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW). 

• The next CR-101 was presented by Policy and Rules Coordinator Denise Laflamme and involved a proposed rulemaking project aimed at altering the buffer zone measurement procedure for all cannabis licensees (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Laflamme shared the project to amend WAC 314-55-050(2) which “related to how the 1,000 foot buffer distance [wa]s measured between a licensed cannabis premises, and restricted entities such as schools.” Additionally, “cities, counties and towns may enact ordinances to permit licensed premises within the 1,000 feet, but not less than 100 feet of these types of facilities,” she said, except for around schools and playgrounds for which the buffer stayed at 1,000 feet.
  • Laflamme established that “cannabis applicants and licensees have indicated that finding a location for a cannabis business is difficult due in part to minimum distance requirements between a licensed premises and restricted entities.” She commented how a proviso in the fiscal year 2026-27 operating budget mandated WSLCB staff study, “among other things, the impact of laws and rules on cannabis licensees, specifically in the cannabis social equity program, with respect to permissible locations for the siting of licensed cannabis businesses.”
    • The proviso was based on language from HB 1551 (Social Equity Program Evaluation), legislation that was not advanced in 2025.
  • According to Laflamme, the rules required the distance between cannabis businesses and restricted entities to be measured as the "shortest straight line distance from the property line of the proposed building or business location to the property line of the restricted entity listed in statute.” Instead of using a straight line, officials might instead measure “along walking or driving paths of travel,” the process used to assess a 500 foot buffer distance between liquor licensees and schools. “Redefining how the 1,000 foot buffer is measured…could provide licensees more options for locating a cannabis business,” stated Laflamme, “and would bring cannabis and liquor standards into closer alignment.”
  • With approval of the CR-101, Laflamme indicated an “informal comment period begins and…will be open until July 4.” There would be engagement with interested parties in July, followed by a CR-102 proposal “at the August 13 board meeting.” Under this timeline there would be a public hearing on September 25th, she said, and “assuming the public hearing doesn't identify a need to substantially change the rule language, we would ask to file the final rules at the October 8 board meeting, and the rules would become effective on…November 8.”
  • After the board voted to approve the CR-101, Board Member Ollie Garrett reflected that the "biggest challenge" communicated by social equity program applicants had been “finding locations.” She hoped the change, despite becoming effective later in the year, helped to "open up more" locations (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• Kildahl also presented the CR-102 proposal regarding acceptable forms of identification (ID), noting the project combined two previously accepted petitions and would address both cannabis and alcohol rules (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • He stated that the cannabis rule regarding the forms of ID that customers may use to enter retail premises and purchase cannabis (WAC 314-55-150) "has not been revisited in content since it was first created in 2013.”
  • Kildahl remarked that the project was a combination of two petitions from 2023, one to “add the federal Global Entry Card to the list of acceptable forms of identification” for liquor licensees, and another petition that was partially accepted “requesting removal of outdated references” in several sections of rule. But as both “petitions addressed acceptable forms of identification, regarding sales, service, possession and consumption of alcohol, it made sense to combine these two petitions into a single rulemaking project to address the issues,” he explained.
  • Kildahl affirmed the project would change identification rules for both alcohol and cannabis, with “proposed amendments to the existing rules includ[ing] removing references to [a rescinded chapter of] RCW [in] three WAC sections.” Another change was the “addition of two forms of identification to verify a person's age for alcohol purchases in WAC 314-11-025, and for cannabis in 314-55-150.” These two forms of ID were the Global Entry Card “and also the federal Permanent Resident Card, which is commonly known as a ‘green card.’”
  • With board approval, Kildahl told board members a public hearing would be hosted on August 14th, “and if all goes as expected, we would plan to bring a CR-103 for approval at the September 10 board meeting.”
  • Board members moved to approve filing the CR-102 (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).