From real estate to first inspection.
One team, full stack.

Facility readiness breaks cleanly into four operational areas. These are our named responsibilities — not advisory inputs, not “site visits.” Where we own, we draft, spec, coordinate, and mock-inspect. Where you own, we coordinate in support but design, capital, and procurement decisions are yours.

Escalation path

When work crosses into privileged legal analysis — lease negotiation and drafting, contested landlord consent, construction-defect disputes — we coordinate with your counsel or introduce one from our retained network. The engagement letter names this boundary.

How we draw the boundary with you

You own: brand, interior design, procurement decisions, general-contractor selection, capital decisions, any landlord negotiations beyond the cannabis-use addendum. We own: the four areas above. Where a design decision has compliance consequences, we document the implication with rationale so the decision is informed.

What’s explicitly out of scope

Architecture, civil/structural/MEP engineering, general contracting, interior design, and fixture procurement are outside the scope of this engagement. Same for retail merchandising and POS selection. Those are specialist fields with their own practitioners; we don’t pretend to be them.

The engagement runs through five named milestones across a 20–24 week build-out horizon. Facility readiness is the intersection of regulatory compliance and physical construction — every wall, every camera, every HVAC return air grille is also a compliance element. The milestones below run parallel to your design-build schedule, not after it, because discovering a CCR 15006 diagram problem at tenant-improvement month three is far more expensive than specifying it at design month one.

Milestones, in detail

• Week 1–2 — Site selection and zoning. Candidate-parcel analysis against the local cannabis overlay, BPC 26054 sensitive-use setbacks, license-type fit, FAR/height/parking/loading feasibility. Planning-staff pre-application confirmation obtained in writing where the jurisdiction offers it. Written memo per candidate parcel delivered before LOI signing. Bad parcel surfaces now, not after a six-figure TI.
• Week 3–4 — Landlord and lease. Form 9206 Landowner Consent executed with correct parcel description and license-type authorization, notarized. Cannabis-use lease addendum language reviewed (by your counsel; we don’t draft). Landlord approval tracker maintained through license issuance. Lease contingencies structured around DCC approval, not before it.
• Week 5–8 — Diagram and security design. CCR 15006 premises diagram drafted in parallel with your architect’s construction set. Scaled; boundaries, limited-access areas, product storage, transaction areas, ingress and egress, camera locations, canopy or activity zones per license type. CCR 15044 limited-access definition, CCR 15045 alarm spec, CCR 15046 access control, CCR 15047 surveillance and 90-day retention — delivered as a vendor-bid package.
• Week 9–20 — TI coordination. Drawing-review log maintained through construction. Every change order cross-checked against the CCR 15006 diagram; where material, diagram amendment filed with DCC. Field-observation photos at major milestones. As-built reconciliation against the diagram. For Type 7: California Fire Code Chapter 50 closed-loop-extraction coordination with fire marshal, solvent-storage classification, post-construction inspection.
• Week 20+ — Pre-inspection drill. Full facility walk using the DCC field inspection checklist two weeks before commissioning. Findings log with close-out owner and date. Staff walk-through so the operating team knows the inspector’s likely questions. Opening-day pack assembled: METRC facility activation, CDTFA cannabis tax permit, local business license, compliance calendar, SOPs loaded in the vault.

Duration and rhythm

Standard retail or distribution facility runs 16–20 weeks from site selection to opening. Cultivation and manufacturing run 20–32 weeks depending on MEP complexity and fire-marshal coordination. Type 7 volatile-solvent manufacturing can run 24–40 weeks due to extraction-system certification and fire authority timelines. Weekly status updates during design phase; biweekly during construction; weekly again in the final pre-inspection sprint.

Who you work with each phase

A named principal owns the engagement and signs the premises diagram filings. A compliance analyst handles security-bid coordination, vendor qualification, and opening-day pack assembly. Your architect, MEP engineer, and general contractor provide construction-side inputs. Your counsel reviews lease language and material-change filings. The compliance interface runs continuously across the design-build team — we don’t join at commissioning; we join at site selection.

When we finish this engagement, you’ll have a specific set of documents, specifications, and verified-build records in your possession. These are not “site visit reports.” They are filed diagrams, spec sheets, commissioned security systems, and an archived record defensible against future DCC inspection, annual renewal diligence, and acquirer review.

The ten outputs, in detail

• Site selection memo. Candidate-parcel analysis against the local cannabis overlay, BPC 26054 sensitive-use setbacks, and license-type fit. Includes planning-staff pre-application confirmation where obtainable. 6–12 pages per site considered. Delivered before LOI signing.
• Zoning verification file. Written planning-staff confirmation (or pre-application letter) that the parcel meets the local cannabis overlay, setbacks, and any FAR/height/parking/loading requirements. Required before lease execution.
• Landlord & lease package. Form 9206 landlord consent executed and filed, cannabis-use lease addendum language reviewed by your counsel, landlord approval tracker maintained through license issuance. Not lease drafting — that stays with counsel.
• CCR 15006 premises diagram. Scaled premises diagram showing all boundaries, limited-access areas, product storage, transaction areas, points of ingress/egress, camera locations, and tagged canopy or activity zones per license type. Drafted in parallel with GC construction set; amendments filed when design changes.
• Security & surveillance spec. CCR 15044 limited-access area definition, CCR 15045 alarm specification, CCR 15046 access-control specification, CCR 15047 surveillance-camera placement and 90-day retention on a dedicated secured recorder. Delivered as a bid package for the alarm vendor.
• TI coordination record. Drawing-review log, change-order review against premises diagram, field-observation photos, as-built reconciliation. Shows the compliance interface with the GC throughout the build.
• Utilities & infrastructure spec. License-type-specific requirements — power load and panel plan, water and waste for cultivation or manufacturing, HVAC and environmental controls to Title 24 and any local green-building cannabis rules, backup systems where required for CCR 15047 video retention.
• Fire-marshal prep (Type 7). Closed-loop extraction system certification under California Fire Code Chapter 50 and local amendments, fire-marshal pre-construction walk, solvent storage and classification, post-construction inspection and sign-off.
• Mock DCC pre-licensure inspection. Full facility walk using the DCC field inspection checklist two weeks before commissioning. Findings log with close-out owner and date. Staff walk-through so the operating team knows where inspectors will look.
• Opening-day readiness pack. METRC facility activation, CDTFA cannabis tax permits, local business license activation, day-one compliance calendar with every recurring obligation dated, SOPs loaded into the document vault, staff training completion log.

Format and delivery

Diagrams delivered as scaled PDFs per DCC submission requirements plus editable source. Specs delivered as bid packages to vendors. Checklists delivered as living trackers with named owners and dates. All documents retained seven years per CCR 15037.

Defensibility anchor

Every recommendation in these deliverables cites a specific authority. CCR 15006 for the premises diagram. CCR 15044–15047 for security and surveillance. BPC 26054 for sensitive-use setbacks. BPC 26055 for local authorization evidence. Title 24 for building code. California Fire Code Chapter 50 for extraction. Plus local planning, building, and fire-marshal rules.

What’s not included

Architecture, engineering, general contracting, interior design, POS selection, lease drafting, and any administrative appeal are explicitly outside this scope. Where those are needed, we coordinate with your design-build team or retained counsel.

Deliverables are what we produce. Outcomes are what those deliverables enable — the specific operational benefits of facility readiness done right. A facility is the most expensive compliance artifact an operator builds; getting it wrong means tearing out walls, relocating cameras, and re-running CUPs.

The ten outcomes, in detail

• Every facility element matches the DCC diagram. As-built reconciled against the CCR 15006 diagram. No drift between what was filed and what was built. Diagram amendments filed for any material change during construction.
• Security commissioned to spec. CCR 15044 limited-access signage and access-control lists; CCR 15045 alarm testing records; CCR 15046 employee-credential system; CCR 15047 surveillance coverage and 90-day retention verified on a dedicated secured recorder. All before day-one operations.
• Sensitive-use setbacks verified and documented. BPC 26054(b) 600-foot setback from K–12 schools, daycares, and youth centers verified against the parcel — or the local-jurisdiction override verified against the ordinance. Measurement documented, not asserted.
• Form 9206 clean. Notarized landowner consent with correct parcel description and license-type authorization. The document every DCC application needs and many get wrong.
• Zoning verification in writing. Planning-staff pre-application letter or written verification that the parcel meets the local cannabis overlay, setbacks, and zoning. The first document future buyers and lenders ask for.
• Utilities specified for license type. Power load sized for cultivation or extraction, water and waste capacity confirmed, HVAC and environmental controls to Title 24 and local cannabis rules, backup systems for CCR 15047 video retention continuity.
• Type 7 fire-marshal sign-off in hand. Closed-loop extraction system certified under California Fire Code Chapter 50, pre-construction walk complete, post-construction inspection passed. Commissioning approved.
• Mock DCC inspection complete before real one. Full facility walk using the DCC field checklist two weeks before commissioning. Findings closed before the real inspector arrives; staff walked through likely questions.
• Day-one compliance calendar live. Every recurring obligation scheduled: METRC reporting, waste destruction cadences, Cal/OSHA program refresh, CUPA renewal, local-permit renewal, CCR 15002 state renewal. No silent expiration dates.
• Diligence-ready facility record. Diagram, security commissioning record, zoning verification, landlord consent, fire-marshal sign-off, mock-inspection findings — all in one archive for future acquirer or lender diligence.

How we measure

Three quantitative measures: (1) variance between as-built and filed CCR 15006 diagram — target zero material items; (2) DCC pre-inspection findings closed before real inspection — target 100%; (3) opening-day readiness items complete (METRC, CDTFA, local business license, compliance calendar, SOPs loaded, staff trained) — target 100%.

Post-engagement review

Sixty days after opening, a written verification memo: every facility element audited in live operation, every security element tested, every compliance-calendar item confirmed. Findings log from the mock inspection cross-checked against real operations. Memo becomes the starting baseline for the first renewal cycle and for ongoing compliance retainer engagement.

When DCC asks about camera placement, we cite CCR 15047. When a fire marshal asks about extraction, we cite California Fire Code Chapter 50 and the corresponding CCR 17205–17207 manufacturing rules. When the building official asks about return-air handling above a limited-access room, we cite Title 24 plus any local cannabis green-building amendment. Facility readiness sits on a stack of overlapping authorities — state statute, state regulation, building and fire code, and the local cannabis ordinance. Every recommendation in the engagement resolves to one of them.

The packet’s job is keeping all four layers aligned through pre-licensure inspection and the first annual renewal. The four-bucket organization below mirrors how DCC, local planning, local building, and local fire actually walk the building.

Business & Professions Code (statute)

• BPC 26054 — Sensitive-use setbacks. 600-foot default setback from K–12 schools, day-care centers, and youth centers, measured straight-line property line to property line. Local jurisdictions may adopt a different distance. In practice, this is the single parcel-killer at site selection; measurement must be documented by a licensed surveyor, not asserted.
• BPC 26055 — Local authorization evidence. DCC may not issue a state license without evidence of local authorization at the proposed premises. In practice, Form 9206 landowner consent plus the local cannabis permit are the core evidence package; without both, the application sits.
• BPC 26160 / CCR 5037 — Recordkeeping retention. Seven-year retention of all commercial cannabis activity records, including premises diagrams, surveillance footage retention logs, and modification filings. In practice, the facility-readiness archive becomes the seed of the retention vault — diagram versions, change-order logs, mock-inspection findings all live there.

California Code of Regulations Title 4 Division 19 (DCC operational rules)

• CCR 15006 — Premises diagram. The scaled premises diagram required for every DCC license. Must show boundaries, limited-access areas, product storage, transaction areas, ingress and egress, camera locations, and tagged canopy or activity zones per license type. In practice, 15006 is the single most-audited facility document — DCC field inspectors walk the facility with the diagram in hand.
• CCR 15027 — Premises modifications. Material changes (size, capacity, building-permit-requiring changes) require advance DCC approval; minor changes require notification only. In practice, the most common pre-licensure inspection finding is a wall move or camera relocation made during construction without a Form DCC-LIC-027 modification filing.
• CCR 15042 — Limited-access areas. Areas where only employees, logged vendors, logged outside professionals, DCC inspectors, and law enforcement may enter; the public is prohibited. In practice, the retail sales floor is typically not limited-access, but vault, back-of-house, and offices are. Boundary signage and visitor logging are part of the spec.
• CCR 15044 — Video surveillance. 24/7 continuous recording at minimum 1280×720 resolution, 90-day retention, backup power continuity, tamper-resistant fixed mounting. In practice, the alarm vendor bid is prepared against this section; any product that fails 1280×720 or 90-day continuity is non-compliant regardless of vendor claims.
• CCR 15045 — Alarm systems. Motion sensors in cannabis and cash areas, door and window contacts at every entry point, glass-break sensors, panic buttons at points of sale and offices, central-station monitoring by a licensed alarm company, and backup power. In practice, panic-button placement is the surface DCC tests during retail inspections.
• CCR 15046 — Access control. Employee credentialing, visitor management, access-log retention. In practice, this interlocks with the alarm and surveillance systems; all three typically integrate through a single vendor platform with PIN or biometric logs.
• CCR 15047 — Camera coverage. Required coverage of every point of entry and exit, every limited-access area, every point of sale, every area where cannabis is weighed, packed, stored, or moved, and the interior and exterior of every safe or vault. In practice, camera placement is the most-cited facility finding at inspection — missed angles, obscured fields of view, recorder offline.
• CCR 15000.6 — Employees 21+. All employees on the licensed premises or handling cannabis must be 21 years of age or older. In practice, a 20-year-old stocker spotted during the pre-licensure walk is an immediate finding; we surface this in the staffing plan before the diagram filing.

Building, fire, and federal-adjacent codes

• Title 24 — California Building Code. Building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, energy, and green-building standards plus Chapter 11A/B accessibility. In practice, Title 24 energy and ventilation requirements are the most facility-relevant; local cannabis ordinances sometimes add grid-renewable and energy-cap requirements on top. ADA Title III and Chapter 11A/B together govern retail accessibility.
• California Fire Code Chapter 50 + CCR 17205–17207 — Volatile extraction. Closed-loop extraction system certification, solvent storage, fire suppression, electrical classification, pressure-relief protocols. For Type 7 operations this is the densest single code chapter; local amendments frequently add requirements beyond the state baseline.
• Local zoning, building, and fire ordinances. Each city and county sets its own zoning, additional sensitive-use buffers, conditional use permit conditions, and building-department review timelines (typically 4–12 weeks per review). In practice, a facility that satisfies state law and fails the local fire code is a facility that cannot open.

DCC Forms (the operational documents)

• Form 9206 — Landowner Consent. Required on every DCC application where the applicant is not the landowner. Notarized. In practice, the most common deficiency is a Form 9206 executed on the wrong parcel description or by a signer without authority to bind the landlord entity.
• Form DCC-LIC-019 — Consolidated SOPs. The Standard Operating Procedures package that ties facility-built systems (security, surveillance, limited-access, waste destruction) to written procedures. Drafted from the as-built diagram, not from a template — written SOPs that disconnect from physical practice are violations even when the practice is reasonable.
• Form DCC-LIC-027 — Notifications and Modifications. The post-issuance form for premises changes, ownership changes, DRP changes, and license-type modifications under CCR 15027. Some changes require prior approval; some are notification-only — the form is the gate either way and is used heavily during TI when wall moves and camera relocations require diagram amendments.

How the authorities interact

Facility readiness crosses DCC, local planning, local building, and local fire. DCC regulates the compliance elements (CCR 15006 premises, CCR 15042 limited-access, CCR 15044–15047 security and surveillance). Local planning regulates zoning, sensitive-use buffers, and conditional use permit conditions (BPC 26054, BPC 26055, local ordinance). Local building regulates physical construction (Title 24, ADA Chapter 11A/B). Local fire regulates extraction and life-safety (California Fire Code Chapter 50 plus local amendments). All four walk the same facility but from different perspectives; a facility that satisfies DCC but fails Title 24 at inspection is a facility that cannot open. The engagement coordinates across all four because the physical building is the same whether the inspector carries a CCR book, a planning checklist, a Title 24 reference, or a CFC Chapter 50 worksheet.

Scope, pricing, timelines, edge cases — the questions facility builders actually ask about getting a cannabis facility from site selection to opening.

• Can we sign a lease before being licensed? Yes, but the lease must be structured with license-issuance contingencies. Free-rent period tied to license approval, termination rights if DCC denies, clear rent-start trigger. We don’t draft lease language, but we coordinate with your counsel on the cannabis-specific provisions landlords often miss. Landlord education is sometimes the first week’s work — many landlords haven’t done this before.
• How does the premises diagram interact with GC drawings? They must match. The CCR 15006 diagram is the regulatory source of truth; your GC’s construction set is the construction source of truth. Where they drift, DCC sees the discrepancy at inspection. We draft the premises diagram in parallel with the construction set and flag any misalignment before the filing lands at DCC.
• What if construction changes during build? Change-order review against the premises diagram. Every material change (wall moved, camera relocated, limited-access boundary shifted, canopy area resized) triggers a diagram amendment filed with DCC via Form DCC-LIC-027 under CCR 15020. Non-material changes log internally. We maintain the tracker weekly during active construction.
• Type 7 closed-loop specifics? Solvent storage room with fire rating, fire suppression (typically CO2 or dry chemical), mechanical ventilation with air-changes-per-hour minimums, electrical classification (Class I Division 1 or 2 depending on layout), and pressure-relief protocols. Engineering certification by a licensed engineer of record. Coordination triangle: fire marshal, engineer, closed-loop vendor. We sit in the middle of that triangle.
• How do we handle multi-license facilities? A facility that houses multiple licenses (cultivation + manufacturing, or distribution + manufacturing, or microbusiness) requires distinct limited-access boundaries between license premises under CCR 15006. Shared common areas allowed; product-handling areas must separate. Premises diagrams filed per license, cross-referenced.
• What about utilities and backup power? Power load sized for license type: cultivation runs 50–200 watts per square foot depending on lighting technology; Type 7 extraction has peak-demand spikes during recovery; retail and distribution are lighter. CCR 15047 video-retention continuity typically requires UPS or generator backup on the recorder and camera network. We specify the requirement; your MEP engineer sizes the equipment.
• Can you do this on an existing leased facility we’re converting? Yes — and this is actually the more common case. Conversions involve an additional layer of pre-existing-condition review: CCR 15006 diagram drafted against current as-built, gap analysis between current state and compliant state, TI scope defined around the gap. Typically lower cost than ground-up because less construction, but more compliance-forensic work.
• What about local building-department reviews? Title 24 building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and green-building reviews run on local-building-department timelines, often 4–12 weeks per review. We coordinate with your MEP engineer and architect but don’t drive building-department reviews directly — that’s your design-build team’s scope.
• How do you handle opening-day pack? METRC facility activation through DCC, CDTFA cannabis-tax permit (distributor and retailer licenses require this), local business license activation, compliance calendar with every recurring obligation dated, SOPs loaded to vault, staff training completion logged. All coordinated in the final two weeks. The opening-day pack is the package that makes the facility actually operational once licensure issues.
• Cost? $15,000–$60,000 depending on facility size, license type, and conversion vs. ground-up. Retail conversion at the lower end; ground-up Type 7 volatile-solvent manufacturing at the upper end. Multi-site operators get portfolio rates. Excludes architecture, engineering, GC, and vendor contracts — those are separate lines billed by your design-build team.