[420 Girl]

The City Council amended zoning ordinances Monday to allow for medical marijuana businesses in the city.

Marijuana businesses will be allowed in the city under special land use permits to be issued by the Planning Commission in designated zones, said City Manager Robert Bruner.

As it stands medical pot businesses are limited to three zones -- light industrial, heavy industrial and office space districts.

However, any marijuana business that includes more than 20 percent of its space for growing pot is prohibited from the office district.

The office space district in Ferndale is concentrated mostly along quarter-mile stretches of Eight Mile and Nine Mile roads on the east side of the city.

The heavy and light industrial districts are clustered chiefly around the Grand Trunk Railroad tracks which run parallel to Woodward several blocks to the east.

Bruner said marijuana businesses under the new rules are not allowed in the central business district or along major thoroughfares such as Woodward, Hilton, Livernois and most of Eight Mile and Nine Mile Roads.

The issue of whether to allow pot outlets in the commercial district was referred back to the Planning Commission, Bruner said.

"There may be more zoning to come," he said.

Councilman Mike Lennon said that though most of the zoning for medical marijuana was decided Monday some changes are likely.

"It's going to need to be tweaked a little bit," he said. "From everything I've heard there a lot of medical marijuana businesses interested in coming to Ferndale."

Councilman T. Scott Galloway was absent from Monday's council meeting where the new zoning was approved in a 4-0 vote.

Though medical marijuana outlets are currently banned along Hilton Road, one dispensary called Clinical Relief opened on Hilton a few blocks north of Eight Mile shortly before the city enacted a moratorium on such businesses June 14.

The 90-day moratorium was passed to give officials time to draft rules for marijuana dispensaries and growing operations. Bruner said the Clinical Relief site will be allowed to continue operations and be grandfathered in under the new rules.

Other communities such as Hazel Park and Royal Oak have also passed moratoriums on pot businesses while they work to draft zoning ordinances and rules. Other cities, including Livonia and Birmingham, have banned medical marijuana businesses in their communities

The issue of allowing marijuana dispensaries and growing operations in Ferndale has stirred very few objections, officials said.

"It hasn't been controversial here at all," Lennon said. "Everything has gone relatively smooth."

Ferndale never considered joining those cities that have banned medical marijuana outlets, Bruner said.

"It was clear a majority of Ferndale voters approved medical marijuana," he said. "The council was looking for a way to reasonably reflect the will of the people and I think we achieved that with these ordinances."

Caregivers and patients at marijuana facilities in Ferndale are required to be legally registered by the Michigan Department of Community Health.

The facilities are not allowed within 500 feet of an educational institution, nursery school, child care center or another marijuana facility.

Hours are limited to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Marijuana use and drive-through services are banned at the facilities, which must provide adequate parking and submit a security and floor plan to the city.

Ferndale also requires marijuana business operators to have a waste disposal plan detailing chemical and plant waste disposal.

Marijuana grow operations are required to get approval from the state Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Detroit to discharge of growing by-products into the city sewer system.



Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Tribune
Contact: editor@dailytribune.com
Website: Daily Tribune : Breaking news coverage for southeastern Oakland County, Michigan
Author: Michael P. McConnell


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