Warren – A debate has been left smoldering among Warren officials with differing views over changes to the citys medical marijuana ordinance that define the required distance between facilities where it is grown and neighboring residential zones.
Members of the Warren City Council met for a special meeting Sept. 20, when the group voted 5-1 to override Mayor Jim Fouts veto of a council action earlier this month that changed the way the required distance between industrial-zoned facilities where medical marijuana is grown by caregivers and various residentially zoned areas that border them.
The locational criteria was changed from a 500-foot measurement from lot line to lot line of the properties to the citys standard measurement methods, which involves a calculation from the outside wall of the facility in question to the property line of a neighboring residential use.
Councilwoman Kelly Colegio voted against the second reading of the proposed change on Sept. 13 and against the veto override on Sept. 20. Councilman Scott Stevens was excused from the Sept. 20 meeting.
Colegio questioned whether the change would make it possible for large numbers of medical marijuana plants, which must be grown by a caregiver in a specified industrial zone according to Warrens ordinance, to be grown closer to schools, day care centers, city parks, libraries and recreational facilities.
It would still be from the lot line of the schools, but the measurement would be from the corner of the building where its grown to the lot line of the schools, said Mary Michaels, Warrens acting city attorney. So there would be some incremental change. But I will add, this ordinance is still more restrictive than the way we measure other locational distances for other uses.
Colegio and Fouts both said theyd rather see an even greater distance of 1,000 feet, which they said had been put in place in other cities, including Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, between medical marijuana facilities and defined drug-free zones.
Im not so sure that we need to amend this to allow for even the possibility of a medical marijuana facility to ever be closer to an elementary school, or a high school, or a child care center where people are taking care of babies, or a public park where our kids are playing, Colegio said. Im not so sure that we need to loosen the ordinance.
I dont feel comfortable making it any easier to put a medical marijuana facility closer to an elementary school or a high school or any place our kids play. Im not sure why the council would want to take those steps, Colegio said.
Council President Cecil St. Pierre said the city has thus far been a leader in restricting large-scale marijuana growing operations in residential areas by enacting the ordinance earlier this year.
Right now, any home can be a caretaker. Any home next to a school can grow marijuana. What weve done now is make sure that its at least 500 feet, minimum, St. Pierre said. And quite frankly, no evidence has been shown here on the record that indicates that any school, child care center, whatever, is near any industrial zone where it can even be a problem.
I think this is nothing to be scared about. Were doing something more than weve ever done before, and were taking it out of the neighborhoods and putting it in industrial zones, St. Pierre said.
Fouts later issued a rare veto of the councils 6-1 vote at the meeting on Sept. 13 and stated he favored imposing a greater distance between facilities in industrial zones where medical marijuana is grown and neighboring residential uses.
Unless we make these changes, we can end up deterring other types of development, Fouts said. While Im not against medical marijuana facilities strictly for medicinal purposes, I am concerned with an oversaturation of these facilities in Warren.
The mayor cited a need to control the proliferation of medical marijuana growing operations in residential neighborhoods when he proposed the ordinance late last year. A first reading of the ordinance was finally passed by the Warren City Council in March.
Fouts previously stated that the intent of the ordinance was to keep de facto commercial medical marijuana operations out of Warrens residential areas, ensure safe operations at places where it is grown, and require filtration systems to keep what he called skunk odors from wafting through the citys neighborhoods.
The ordinance, as adopted, imposes a list of local requirements for qualified patients under the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. It prohibits the growth, manufacturing, processing or storage of medical marijuana by a patient or caregiver anywhere other than the patients residence or another facility permitted by the ordinance. That now includes certain industrial zones, where operations are subject to Fire Department and Building Division inspections, must be registered with the city, and must comply with a list of provisions aimed at curtailing light and odor emissions.
Residential growing is permitted by one qualified patient or caregiver only at the patients primary residence.
Violations are misdemeanor offenses punishable by a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail.
A separate section dubbed the Fresh Air Ordinance addresses the emission of offensive odors and related enforcement. Violations are cited as municipal civil infractions, punishable by $100 to $1,000 in fines.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Officials At Odds Over Tweaks To Medical Pot Ordinance
Author: Brian Louwers
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