3 medical marijuana provisioning centers looking to open in Greenville

GREENVILLE — With the door of the new medical marijuana industry now officially open in this community, three applicants have jumped at the opportunity to bring the first provisioning centers to this city. 

City Manager George Bosanic announced at Thursday’s Greenville Planning Commission meeting that the city has received three applications for medical marijuana provisioning centers following the City Council’s decision earlier this year to legalizing the industry.

While adult-use (recreational) marijuana retail establishments (dispensaries) will continue to be prohibited at this time, three applicants — Green Medicine Shop Provisioning LLC (GMS), Cross Country Enterprises II LLC (X Country) and R&J Greenville LLC (Brisk Cannabis) — all submitted applications this summer. 

Two of those applicants, GMC and X Country, brought forth preliminary site plans for their new operations to be reviewed and evaluated, while Brisk Cannabis is expected to present as soon as next month. 

GMS has operated at 500 N. Lafayette St. (M-91) since 2020 as a CBD (cannabidiol) store, but owners Matt and Shawnee Bonner are now hoping to transition their business to include cannabis derived from marijuana instead of hemp. 

X Country, based in Kalamazoo, has partnered with Davide Uccello, co-owner of Flo’s Pizzeria Ristorante & Sports Bar in Greenville, to transform the vacant building he owns at 600 N. Lafayette St., which most recently operated as Mobile Audio until that business closed in 2017, into a provisioning center. 

Brisk Cannabis has yet to present a preliminary site plan, but their application indicates they plan to transform the former Ponderosa building at 1015 N. Lafayette St — which closed in 2015 — into a provisioning center. 

Per the ordinances adopted by the City Council, medical marijuana provisioning centers must be approved via a special land use request before the Planning Commission and can only operate in the new North Lafayette District, which consists of properties along M-91 from the Flat River north to Van Deinse Street, with a buffer of 200 feet between other provisioning centers. 

GMS

City Planner Andy Moore of Williams & Works determined the GMS site plan and use of the property as proposed to be consistent with the city’s Master Plan. He also determined the majority of criteria for special land use standards and medical marijuana provisioning center standards were met.

Moore said GMS needs to submit a more detailed landscape plan to showcase its intentions around the exterior of the property — particularly with the lack of landscaping along Gibson Drive, as the parking lot on the property bleeds directly into the street. 

GMS recently added new landscaping, including a flag pole sporting an American flag. 

“I believe it needs some more bushes — something to divide Gibson Street from the parking lot,” Commission Vice Chairman Greg VanderMark said. “There’s also no sidewalk. I think you should have some required sidewalk and maybe some shrubbery to class it up a little bit.”

“I want to very respectfully differ with Greg. I don’t think we need a sidewalk to the car wash,” Commissioner Pete Frye countered. “Our intention is to dress up N. Lafayette Street north of the river, which (GMS) are apparently trying to do. If you can do some dressing up without a sidewalk along Gibson Drive, that might make your building more attractive to customers … and I think it looks better already.” 

In response, Shawnee expressed some concern, depending on how much landscaping the city may require, such as removing as much as 10 feet of parking lot along Gibson Drive to put in new green space. 

“We would love to do all those things, but they are expensive things,” Shawnee said. “You can’t get a business loan with cannabis. This is pocket money. Eliminating a whole side of the parking lot? If we could rebuild the building, plow it over and build a nice, big fancy one and re-landscape it, we would have done that. But when we are transitioning from selling cannabis derived from hemp to cannabis derived from marijuana, we’re not going to see this exponential growth in sales that will give us a whole bunch of money to do this (landscaping).”

Commissioners deliberated about whether to approve the GMS site plan with conditions to be met in the future, possibly as far as one to five years down the line.

“I’ve heard from the property owners and they have a financing problem while we have a landscaping problem,” Commissioner Doug McFadden said. “I guess my question to the Planning Commission is, how big a burden are you willing to impose upon the property owners, realizing that your only hammer is to deny them the permit?” 

Commission Chairman David Ralph said the financial limitations of an applicant should not necessarily deter the Planning Commission from carrying out the desires outlined in the city’s ordinances and Master Plan. 

“We also go to great lengths to fulfill a vision of the community,” he noted. “That’s going to be what we have to weigh out at this point. Very specifically, the City Council, at their direction, has put forth a vision of the N. Lafayette corridor. At the same time, we’re creating an opportunity within that district for people to participate in that development and to make it better not only for the community, but for themselves.” 

With a hope that medical marijuana provisioning centers would help to beautify the N. Lafayette corridor in the city, which has long been neglected in areas, Commissioner and City Council Liaison Larry Moss stressed the desire of the commission to work with GMS to make that happen. 

“Matt and Shawnee, we want you to be a success, we really do,” he said. “Having said that, we have some parameters that we have to meet as well. I think we’re going to try and work with you to make your dream come true, maybe not exactly how you wanted it, but we’re going to work with you. Just be rest assured of that. 

“Matt has certainly done a marvelous job of remodeling that building, it’s very impressive,” he added. “It’s a beautiful building, you’ve done a lot of nice work, but I’d like to see that reflected on the outside as well.” 

Members of the commission reached a consensus to have GMS return in the future with an updated site plan and more detailed landscape map, to be reevaluated at a future date, before eventually scheduling a public hearing to consider approval of a final site plan. 

X Country

In evaluating the preliminary site plan submitted by X Country, Moore again determined the site plan and proposed use for the property are both consistent with the city’s Master Plan and the majority of criteria for special land use standards and medical marijuana provisioning center standards.

He said X Country had a few minor adjustments to be made with its landscaping plan and there was an issue identified with the property’s proposed loading/unloading area.

“The location of the loading/unloading area is unusual in that it is located more than 100 feet from the building and could present safety/security concerns,” he said. “The applicant is proposing to remove several light poles from the property and it appears that replacements or other provisions for site lighting are not proposed.” 

With four landscape islands and five peninsulas proposed for the parking lot, as well as eight trees to be planted along Lafayette Street, another four along Charles Street and one per landscape island, members of the commission were delighted to see the exterior improvements proposed by X Country. 

“Right now that area at N. Lafayette and Charles Street, west of the mobile audio design building, is basically a blacktop desert,” Frye said. “So just as a commissioner with a personal view, I think any change with trees and islands and greenery along Lafayette Street and Charles should be looked on favorably by us and I hope they are successful.” 

With a commitment made to adjust the loading area and present a concept for design of a roadside sign, Uccello is hopeful to present a final site plan next month. As he currently operates three other marijuana facilities in West Michigan, he said he fully understands the requirements as outlined by the city. 

“We have opened three new dispensaries in the past 18 months in Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Grand Rapids, so we are very, very familiar with the process of this business, as far as what we need to do to the building and the lot,” Uccello said. “I hope the details that need to be taken care of can be put into a final site plan request. I just want to say thank you for making this happen. I know it was a long journey and Green Medicine Shop has endured that long journey, so thank you.”

‘Progressing forward’

The next steps for each applicant will depend on how confident they are in submitting final site plan proposals.

Frye emphasize that he didn’t want a city habit to develop that results in applicants waiting months for approval. 

“We’ve been working on a marijuana medicine ordinance for three years — two-and-a-half years after the state approved (adult-use) marijuana,” he said. “I don’t want to make this a habit, of postponing this forever. I want to continue progressing forward because both of these plans offer a big improvement in what Lafayette Street looks like.” 

Regarding the number of landscaping requirements for the applicants, Bosanic said that comes with the territory of attempting to operate a new use in a district that was previously constructed at a time when zoning did not exist in the city. 

“Up until about 1995, the city of Greenville did not have a site plan review ordinance at all — whatever went in was whatever anybody wanted and there was very little oversight, if any,” Bosanic said. “Going forward, you have an opportunity here with these properties. This North Lafayette District, some of the incentive for establishing this zone was that the applicants are going to invest a lot of money in these facilities and spruce things up. That’s been a goal of the City Council for the north part of Lafayette and this was a means to that end. 

“So this is your one-time opportunity to take these applications, correct some things, and modernize things that are delinquent on those sites,” he continued. “This is your one shot at it, but If you’re of the mind to do something like that, to provide any leniency, you need to be aware that you need to be consistent, because you have other applicants.”