SALINE, MI – Saline took the following step to hitch its pro-marijuana neighbors in Washtenaw County on Monday, when metropolis leaders unanimously OK’d guidelines for leisure marijuana retailers inside metropolis limits.
Grownup-use hashish shops like those who have develop into commonplace in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti will now be capable of find in some elements of Saline, offered they obtain a metropolis allow and undergo a particular land use course of, in addition to observe state rules.
The two ordinances passed on March 21 — one including adult-use marijuana companies to the town’s zoning ordinance and one other establishing a neighborhood licensing course of for them — mirror carefully rules the city placed on medical marijuana provisioning centers when it formally allowed them final yr.
Learn extra: Saline hashes out framework for city’s medical marijuana businesses
Saline Mayor Brian Marl mentioned he thought the brand new guidelines exemplified the “considerate and thorough” strategy the city has taken over several months drafting them, including they put “applicable safeguards and rules in place.”
The ordinances prohibit retailers primarily to industrial areas alongside Michigan Avenue and out of doors of downtown. They’ll even have to remain 250 ft from different marijuana companies and 1,000 ft away from college property.
Lawyer Thomas Forshee, who has suggested officers as the principles moved by means of a metropolis code overview activity drive and its planning fee, mentioned the town deliberately prevented a tough cap on the variety of marijuana institutions.
Cities that impose caps must then set up a aggressive course of to choose who will get licenses, and that’s been the No. 1 explanation for lawsuits across the state involving the rules, he mentioned. Ypsilanti officers lately discovered themselves facing litigation over their selection process in December.
Saline is as a substitute using a “pure choice methodology” that makes use of zoning restrictions and buffers to manage the variety of retailers by advantage of there solely being a lot obtainable area within the metropolis, Forshee mentioned.
The native rules permit retailers within the C-1, C-2, C-3 and SPA zoning districts, in keeping with a city memo summarizing the ordinance. Marijuana growers are nonetheless prohibited.
The brand new guidelines permit “co-location,” or completely different sorts of marijuana institutions working in the identical constructing, offered they’re every licensed and undergo an approval course of. Meaning companies providing each leisure and medical marijuana may open within the metropolis.
A number of metropolis leaders cited the unanimous approval of the planning fee and code overview activity drive whereas voicing their help for the leisure marijuana ordinances.
Metropolis Council Member Dean Girbach mentioned he’s heard issues from residents over welcoming the companies into the town. Nonetheless, he mentioned, the town has confronted a authorized problem over its rules that might have worn out its present guidelines and brought away its skill to manage the place the companies have been permitted altogether.
“It’s a difficulty that I imagine is coming down the highway,” he mentioned. “I want the feds would get this over with.”
“This ordinance I feel shapes essentially the most acceptable approach for our group and locations it the place we wish it inside our group,” added Council Member Jack Ceo, voicing his help.
A majority of voters within the metropolis supported the legalization of marijuana on the statewide ballot measure in 2018, Council Member Daybreak Krause mentioned, including her help.
The brand new guidelines are prone to get some use quickly.
Saline leaders have entertained a proposal from a marijuana retailer to purchase a city-owned lot on Michigan Avenue, and Mayor Marl famous the town’s Planning Fee is listening to a proposal for a separate medical marijuana center on Wednesday, March 23.
That enterprise intends to pursue adult-use leisure permits as properly, he mentioned.
Extra from The Ann Arbor Information:
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