Shamroe
TRAVERSE CITY — After deliberations, court hearings and more meetings over Traverse City’s nonmedical marijuana business rules, city leaders could soon schedule them for their final vote.
One major question remains: How many nonmedical cannabis retailers should the city allow? It’s the subject of a lawsuit challenging the city’s first attempt at limiting the stores, and now a placeholder in a draft ordinance city commissioners will see Monday.
They could decide to move the ordinance and other rules for nonmedical marijuana retail forward for possible adoption on May 3.
Mayor Pro Tem Amy Shamroe served on the subcommittee that recommended eight to 10 — more than the city’s previous cap of four but less than what marijuana business owners and advocates pushed for.
She said it’s a smaller start that can be increased later, and it aims to avoid the land rush the city’s medical marijuana licensing lottery caused beforehand. That displaced some existing businesses and afterward, storefronts sat empty after unsuccessful applicants bought them in hopes that their number would come up.
Some medical cannabis sellers hoping to get into nonmedical sales are appealing a 13th Circuit Court ruling upholding the city’s previous cap on nonmedical stores. Judge Thomas Power agreed that allowing four, versus 13 medical stores, didn’t violate state law.
Power struck down the city’s previous scoring rubric for awarding those four licenses, ruling that numerous items had nothing to do with finding the applicant most suited to comply with state law.
City commissioners on Monday will consider scheduling that rubric’s replacement for a possible vote on May 3. Gone are the items Power listed as problematic and in their place are others that include echoes of other cities’ scoring criteria — a “good neighbor” plan for minimizing a store’s impact on its surroundings, for example.
Detroit’s city council recently approved regulations that included a similar requirement, meeting documents show.
The limit on Traverse City’s stores is part of a police power ordinance, and on Monday commissioners also will consider scheduling a separate but related set of zoning rules for a possible decision May 3.
Overlay districts across the whole city would establish how many retailers of nonmedical marijuana — also known as adult use or recreational — could locate in each of the 10 zones.
Limits within those districts caused some concern at a recent planning commission meeting that existing medical marijuana stores wouldn’t have a shot to apply. Planners largely agreed the limits should match the number of existing stores.
Cloud Cannabis co-owner John McLeod told planners at that meeting about how his sparsely staffed Traverse City location loses money compared to the company’s other stores in cities that allow both kinds of marijuana sales.
Store owners and managers repeated their ask for no limits on nonmedical stores, or at least allowing more than just a handful. They cited a dwindling medical cannabis market as the nonmedical sector takes off, on top of outside competition from stores free to sell both kinds.
Plus, allowing more or unlimited stores would let market forces decide which ones succeed or fail, the commenters told planners — It’s an argument that came up at various meetings and public hearings.
Shamroe said she’s heard from many residents who don’t oppose having nonmedical marijuana businesses in town, but who don’t want one on “every block, and several in every neighborhood.”
“And I think that’s that part where we need to step up for the citizens that we’re hearing from and say we can do this, but we need to do it in a more organized way that’s responsive to the people that live in the town and the neighborhoods in our town,” she said.
May’s first meeting could be a busy one if commissioners move ahead with suggested changes to the city’s medical marijuana business rules. One would nix higher-level appeals at the city level for applicants seeking a new permit but who are denied, according to a memo from city Clerk Benjamin Marentette. They could still challenge that denial in court.
Another would repeal the city’s medical marijuana grow facility ordinance language from 2010, as it’s since been superseded by state law, according to Marentette’s memo.
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