Greenville planners send marijuana rules to council

Ordinances would permit medical marijuana but continue to prohibit adult-use

A series of ordinances that will regulate the commercial sale, growing, processing and more of medical and adult-use marijuana will now make their way to the Greenville City Council.

However, not everyone in the community — from residents to business owners both opposed and in favor of creating a commercial market of legal marijuana — is happy with the direction the city is going.

In April, the City Council sent four ordinances — two zoning ordinances and two regulatory ordinances — to the Planning Commission to be evaluated and reworked to the city’s liking for potential adoption into law.

During Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting, after months spent on reviewing and altering amendments to the city’s zoning ordinances, members of the commission reached a consensus, voting unanimously on five separate motions — on two regulatory ordinances and three ordinance amendments — to be recommended for approval by the City Council.

“The City Council has crafted these ordinances, they will enact these ordinances, but they asked the Planning Commission to review the language they created and we have done that,” Commission Chairman David Ralph said.

“They do detail the provisions for all types of marijuana establishments within the city and at present reflect the decision of the City Council to pursue medical marijuana provisioning centers and not adult-use marijuana. That is why these ordinances that the Planning Commission has prepared for City Council consideration do not address adult use at this time.”

To summarize, the ordinances would permit the establishment of medical marijuana provisioning centers in Greenville — through approval of a special land use request — along with industrial processing, growing, transporter and compliance facilities for both medical and adult-use marijuana.

However, adult-use marijuana retail establishments (dispensaries) would continue to be prohibited, per the instruction of the City Council.

Greenville Planning Commission Chairman David Ralph, left, addresses the public toward the conclusion of Thursday evening’s Planning Commission meeting as Vice Chairman Greg VanderMark listens. — DN Photo | Cory Smith

Additionally, buffers within the North Lafayette District would be implemented, including medical marijuana provisioning centers to not be located within 200 feet of other medical marijuana provisioning centers and 1,000 feet from either schools or commercial daycare facilities.

Public comment

As the three ordinance amendments — to permit medical marijuana provisioning centers, create the North Lafayette District and create the Industrial Park District — required public hearings to be held at the level of the Planning Commission, several people attended Thursday’s meeting to speak out on the subject.

Comments ranged from those who expressed that they were outright against allowing the legal commercial sale of marijuana in the community, to those who felt the city was missing out on an opportunity by only aiming to legalize medical marijuana provisioning centers.

Larry Anstett, who owns the property at 601. N. Lafayette St. (Ziebart/Maxi Automotive), said he didn’t believe introducing the sale of either medical or adult-use marijuana would necessarily be a good thing for the community.

“I’ve been there for 32 years and I don’t understand the whole ballgame here,” he said.

“I spent a year in Vietnam, I know drugs and the effects of everything. I then came back home in the ’60s and (drugs) was a big hot thing.”

While he stated he believes there is value in medical marijuana for those who need it, Anstett said he did not support the concept of “over the counter” provisioning centers in the city.

“The medical marijuana thing, that helps people and there are positives to that,” he said.

“I think that’s a great thing, but as far as the other stuff … I think we’ve got enough problems in this town with the drugs. I just don’t think the over-the-counter stuff is all for the best interest. … That’s just my opinion, but there’s a lot of money there and money talks.”

However, not everyone in attendance at the meeting agreed with Anstett’s focus on money being the motivator for provisioning centers.

Casey Kornoelje, owner of PharmHouse Wellness in Grand Rapids — the first adult-use dispensary in Grand Rapids to be owned by a resident of the city — said he believed city officials would be making a mistake in approving medical marijuana provisioning centers, but not adult-use marijuana dispensaries.

“At this time, I think that you’re really doing yourself a disservice,” he said.

“You are essentially setting up non-viable businesses, as I’ve seen them. I’ve operated a medical marijuana provisioning center in a jurisdiction that is much larger than Greenville. I can tell you that the money is not what the gentleman before me said it was.”

Kornoelje then listed out what he described as “unintended consequences” of not also approving adult-use dispensaries at this time.

“You’ll most likely be attracting larger corporations — multi-state operators,” he suggested.

“These are the entities that have sufficient liquidity to burn. That’s what anyone opening a (medical)-only provisioning center in Greenville will be doing — (they’ll) be burning cash. I can say that based on my own experiences.

“The second thing you may be encountering is folks will pursue licensure in Greenville, go through the Planning Commission, the City (Council), the application process, and then they will squat on those properties,” he continued.

“They will not open those businesses until there’s an actual, viable path for those businesses to live and proceed and that really only exists with adult-use marijuana.”

Kornoelje concluded his thoughts by stating that the city would be missing out on “excise” tax revenue, as medical marijuana provisioning centers are not subject to the same 10% excise tax that the state has imposed on adult-use dispensaries.

“Adult-use cannabis, there is an excise tax associated with it that is remitted down to the municipalities based on your (level of participation),” he said.

“With a (medical)-only ordinance, you will see zero remittance of excise tax.”

Davide Uccello, co-owner of Flo’s Pizzeria Ristorante & Sports Bar in Greenville, who also owns the now-vacant Mobile Audio building at 600 N. Lafayette St., said he has dealt with the same issue of operating a medical-only provisioning center after having opened three dispensaries in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Muskegon.

Each municipality in which his adult-use dispensaries are located received $28,000 in tax revenue from his stores, which he said have profited. However, in the municipality in which his provisioning center is located, zero marijuana tax revenue was collected and Uccello said that the business is not making a profit.

“We have three stores and one of those stores is only medical and it is losing money month after month,” he said.

Additionally, Oakfield Township resident Aaron Petersen personally testified that the city was losing out on tax revenue that is currently going to other municipalities.

“I did want to make sure the Planning Commission and, by way, the City Council is also aware, that recreational sales are already happening in Greenville,” he said.

“The illicit market is alive and well and part of that is because there is not a legal market here. The other side of that is there are delivery companies as far as Grand Rapids delivering here several times a day. I’ve ordered twice in the last two weeks, once from Ionia and once from Grand Rapids, both being delivered within hours.”

Uccello said his own dispensary in Grand Rapids has made deliveries to Greenville.

Next step, City Council

In response to the comments made during public comment, Ralph stressed that at this time, the Planning Commission is following the direction it was given from the City Council, adding that when the City Council considers all five ordinances, public hearings will be held on each one, providing more opportunity for public comment.

“Each of the items that we discussed this evening will be going to the City Council and they will be taking final, official action on the recommendations that we’ve made and they will have the opportunity to consider your input at that time and have the opportunity to send these items back to the Planning Commission for further review if they see that to be necessary,” he said.

“This ends a long process with the Planning Commission, but also a long process with the community. I know from feedback that these are issues that affect people in many different ways. There are many different perspectives about the marijuana industry and I think that has justified taking time to get to this point, maybe to the frustration of some who wish these things could move more quickly, and I appreciate that as well.”

The next step in the process will be for the City Council to schedule public hearings on the two regulatory ordinances and three zoning ordinance amendments.

City Manager George Bosanic told the Daily News he estimates those public hearings would potentially come sometime in January, at the earliest, as the city navigates through the winter holiday season.