Pubdate: Tue, 19 Oct 2010
Source: Argus-Press, The (Owosso, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Argus-Press
Contact: http://www.argus-press.com/submissions/?mode=letters
Website: http://www.argus-press.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4861
Author: Gary Ridley, Argus-Press Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+medical+marijuana
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

OWOSSO COUNCIL DELAYS ACTION ON MARIJUANA RULES

OWOSSO -- Medical marijuana in the city of Owosso will not be 
regulated by a city ordinance -- at least for the time being.

The Owosso City Council did not move ahead with two proposed zoning 
ordinance amendments that would limit the areas that medical 
marijuana producers would be able to operate within the city limits 
during its meeting Monday night.

The council voted to pull the two proposed changes from the consent 
agenda during the meeting at the request of city staff. By pulling 
the proposals, the council did not set a public hearing, which is 
required to have the ordinance changes move forward.

Assistant City Manager Adam Zettel, who was sitting in for City 
Manager Donald Crawford during the meeting, said the two proposals 
submitted to the council by the city's medical marijuana subcommittee 
were not written in the way he believed the committee members 
intended them to be.

"The impact would be different than intended," Zettel said.

Zettel said much of the problem stemmed from the fact cumulative 
zoning rules would extend the scope of the committee's intent.

Cumulative zoning rules would allow anything that would be 
permissible in a single-family R-1 zoned area to also be permissible 
in a multi-family R-2 zoned area, according to Zettel.

The city's original proposals hoped to limit medical marijuana 
caregivers to single-family residential areas and light-industrial 
areas, rather then allowing them in all residential or commercial zoned areas.

The city also received a copy of a "white paper" from the Michigan 
Municipal League that addresses the role of local government in the 
Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

Zettel and city attorney William Brown said the subcommittee and 
council should review the document before moving forward with any proposals.

"We really want to get into this white paper," Zettel said.

By delaying the ordinance changes, the city currently has no 
restrictions specifically tailored to where a medical marijuana 
caregiver could grow or distribute medical marijuana outside of the 
city's standard zoning regulations.

Some council members raised concerns that caregivers could open 
dispensaries in the city's retail business districts before any 
ordinance change is passed, which would allow them to be 
grandfathered in to any ordinance made in the future.

Despite the concerns, the council refused to pass a moratorium on 
medical marijuana businesses.

The first zoning amendment would have prohibited any primary 
residence in a one-family residential district from having more than 
one primary caregiver in the same dwelling.

Primary caregivers are individuals that have been licensed by the 
state to grow and cultivate medical marijuana for up to five 
patients. They can also grow medical marijuana for themselves if they 
are also a medical marijuana patient.

Each caregiver can grow up to 12 marijuana plants in an enclosed, 
locked facility for each one of their patients.

This ordinance addition would also only allow caregiver operations to 
occur in a "primary residence," or a one-family dwelling in which the 
primary caregiver would normally reside.

By including the primary residence portion within the ordinance, 
committee members said out-of-town people would not be able to rent 
homes in residential areas with only the purpose of conducting a 
marijuana growing operation.

The second proposal would allow individual primary caregivers and 
multiple primary caregivers to operate out of buildings in the city's 
light industrial districts.

By restricting commercial growing operations to light industrial 
zones only, the subcommittee's intent was that no distribution would 
be able to take place at retail locations in the city's business districts.

Neither proposal addressed the growing or distribution of medical 
marijuana in relation to the proximity of churches or schools.

Brown said a one sentence addition to each proposal could solve any 
problems created by cumulative zoning. He also said he planned for 
the problem but did not expect to see the two proposals on the 
council's agenda so soon.

Zettel said he expects the council to be presented with an updated 
ordinance to regulate medical marijuana in the city.

"There will be some delay to it, but I think it's necessary," Zettel said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake