City Commission discusses potential increase to marijuana licenses
Mount Pleasant City Commission meets in person for its Feb. 14 meeting.
Mount Pleasant City Commission held a work session regarding the medical and recreational marijuana licenses permitted in the city at its Feb. 14 meeting.
There are currently 5 locations with either a provisioning center license, a retailer license or both. The work session's goal was to understand the commissioners' feelings for increasing that number, but to not decide on anything yet.
“When we first began looking at medical marijuana and then adult-use marijuana establishments, one of the things that we talked about was starting small and then looking at the data that was collected to see how it was received in the city and also see if there were any changes needed or any issues that were happening,” Mayor Amy Perschbacher said. “Then COVID hit, and we had a lot of delays in some of the openings of the establishments.”
City Manager Aaron Desentz offered the commission three potential avenues for licensing: offering reciprocity between “equivalent” medical and adult-use license types, opening up the licensing for another round of applications for local businesses or opening to offer new types of licenses.
Commissioner Mary Alsager believes maintaining the current status of five retail locations could be beneficial. After discussing the possible options for expanding licensing, Alsager said she preferred reciprocity along with other commissioners.
Reciprocity would not increase the number of locations in the city, but instead give current locations the options to obtain both medical and recreational licenses.
“I like what you suggest in your first option to offer the reciprocity,” Alsager said. “So then we would, in essence, have five establishments with both medical and recreational.”
Commissioner Brian Assmann said he felt troubled by the potential reciprocity plan.
“It has to do with the reciprocity because of the current lawsuit that we have been within the city from one of the medical facilities," Assmann said. "It doesn't send a good message to me that I don't get what I want so I'm going to sue you. I don't know the resolution to that, but it just doesn't sit well.”
Perschbacher raised the question of if there has been an increase in crime such as driving under the influence since the initial creation of the dispensaries. Public Safety Director and Police Chief Paul Lauria said there is not "eye-popping" evidence of that.
“I think that you also have to understand that typically, before the legalization of marijuana, a lot of it was focused on alcohol,” Lauria said. “The officers didn't have the training to be able to enforce it or to tell if somebody was driving while under the influence of marijuana, but with the legalization of it there's additional training and stuff.”
Commissioner Elizabeth Busch said she felt an expansion was too much at once without proper community feedback.
"We would have to get feedback directly from people like constituents from the community," Busch said.
Commissioners agreed unanimously to receive more information and data from other cities such as Big Rapids that have more marijuana dispensaries before scheduling another public hearing on the topic.
Deborah Carey, owner of Consano, spoke during public comment on her experience trying to obtain recreational licensing. Carey said she appreciates the "extra time" the commission is putting into the discussion for increasing licensing.
“Three years ago today, I won the property lottery. It would be incredibly sad for that first marijuana facility to have to close due to these restrictions,” Carey said. “Please level the playing field.”
Alley repairs continue discussion
Commissioners discussed the alley repairs that the city will split with local businesses. The goal is to reconstruct two alleyways in the downtown area.
The special assessment's percentage, 50 percent from the property and 50 percent from the city, was based on a policy the city commission adopted last year.
Robert Backus joined the public hearing to plead that the costs for his business were too high compared to other locations.
“Honestly, I just don't understand how it can be that you know that my building gets assessed at almost $12,000, which is doubled anybody else,” Backus said. “I think it's unconstitutional. I think it's inappropriate certainly in this case.”
The commission voted to keep the price the same in a 6-1 vote.
Other news
- Desentz said he has contacted Robert Baltierrez, owner of Taco Boy, regarding the city commission's decision to have the planning commission examine the drive-thru stacking ordinance. He said that no enforcement will take place at this time.
- Mount Pleasant Police Departments' newest officer, Darryl Johns, was sworn into service by Lauria.
The entire city commission meeting can be viewed on the city's YouTube channel.
