Stakeholder advocacy supporting reform of LAMC 104.20’s social equity transfer restrictions.
Licensee-side advocacy supporting amendment of the Los Angeles Municipal Code provision that restricts Social Equity Applicant ownership transfers — the rule that, in protecting equity owners from predatory acquisition, also traps their capital by shrinking the eligible buyer pool. The engagement built the economic record and coordinated council-side stakeholder input on Council File 26-0791.
Council File 26-0791 advanced with an amending motion in June 2026; final codification pending as of publication. Engagement continues through adoption and Department of Cannabis Regulation implementation.
The transfer restriction was written to protect social equity owners from predation. In practice it impaired the fair market value of the very licenses it protected: an owner who can only sell to an identically qualified buyer holds an asset with a structurally reduced buyer pool. The advocacy record centered that economic reality — protection that destroys value is not protection — and supported reform that preserves anti-predation review while restoring exit optionality to the owners the program exists to serve.