The City of Allegan will be proposing to adopt an opt-out ordinance to prohibit marijuana establishments, at least on a temporary basis. That’s because the ordinance also specifically directs the planning commission to study the city’s options for authorizing and regulating marijuana establishments under the new law for future options.
City council set a public hearing for Jan. 14, and will have a first reading of the ordinance then.
City manager Joel Dye called the ordinance a “wait, study and recommend” ordinance that allows the city more time to study the issue and not make any rushed decisions.
Doing nothing is automatically an opt-in for allowing marijuana establishments to start business, which can open up legal risks with a lottery parliament choosing the company allowed in, said Dye. He said city staff recommended the best way to approach the issue was to establish an ordinance to get zoning in place to ensure setbacks from such uses as churches and schools.
Dye said the council also has to consider if choosing to opt-out, voters can override the council’s decision and only cities that have a marijuana establishment or microbusiness will receive a portion of taxes collected under the proposal.
“The devil’s in the details,” he said. “You now have a medical marijuana facility using the same terms as a recreational one that can combine into a list of seven facilities.”
Delora Andrus said her initial thought was to opt-in because marijuana is now legal and can be grown in the home. Also, if opting in, the city will get revenue.
However, after working for an industry lawyer on dispensary licensing, she said it took about a year to get up and going, so she preferred an ordinance to opt-out now until further information was available.
Nancy Ingalsbee said she also preferred to take some time and make a good decision. “I think we should pass this to the planning commission to deal with.”
Mayor Rachel McKenzie said she would rather opt-out in order to set parameters for the community within the confines of the law the state sets for municipalities to follow.
“That’s not going to happen until the licensing program takes place,” she said. “The other thing to consider, whether we opt-in and receive tax incentives or opt-out and not receive it, we are still going to have folks passing through our community that our police department will have to deal with—so that needs to be considered in terms of how that will affect our police budget in the future.”
Charles Tripp said having a store downtown would bring more people downtown. “But I don’t think we’re ready to opt in yet,” he said. “We need to do a lot of stuff before that can happen.”
Mike Manning said he was all for more knowledge and asked the public to attend the planning meetings for input.
Traci Perrigo was for opting out right now because she could not envision the business in city limits. She agreed with the mayor about planning for the police budget since there will be the component of people possessing marijuana whether it is sold in the city or not.
Mayor McKenzie said marijuana will have to be treated like alcohol.
“Some people can use it responsibly and some irresponsibly, but we have to consider 58 percent of our residents voted for it,” she said “It’s not a giant ‘no’ to anyone who is involved in recreational use of marijuana.”
Dye said by the city opting out at this time and directing the planning commission to study the issues, they can return with a recommendation on how the city should handle land use—because it is a land use issue, he said. The planning commission will be instructed to return with a report before Dec. 1, 2019.
“I don’t think it will take the planning commission 11 months to get there but it will take several months,” Dye said. “We will hold at least one public hearing to seek input from the public.”
The proposed ordinance states Marijuana establishments are prohibited in the city until such time as the City Council amends the chapter to allow one or more establishments. It also establishes violations as a municipal civil infraction with fines between $100 and $500, as well as other costs incurred. Each day during which any violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense.
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