Businesses camp out for marijuana dispensary licenses in Riverview

RIVERVIEW, Mich. – Friday at 9 a.m., the City of Riverview will begin accepting licenses for businesses wanting to operate recreational marijuana businesses.

Some, like Kinship Cannabis Co, are so committed they’ve been sleeping outside city hall for the last nine days to get their application in first.

“More so than anything, we wanted to be in our community,” said Andrew Curtis, a brand ambassador for Kinship.

Riverview approved a recreational marijuana ordinance in December. It requires pre-approval from the state and identifying where the business is to be located.

That business location is the tricky part. Because of Riverview’s size, the real estate is limited, and the ordinance requires cannabis businesses to be further than 300 feet away from each other in specific commercial zones.

All things being equal, if you have two competing businesses who are interested in the same location but one got their application in first will it matter — the ordinance does not address the issue.

Kinship already operates an upscale cannabis store in Albion. It has commercial-use property ready to go in Riverview if approved.

“We’re so happy to be at the forefront of our ship, if that’s what you want to call it, sailing into this new avenue in our own community,” Curtis said.