City amends marijuana ordinance for licensing fair play

Goal is that larger entrepreneurs gain no advantage in opening new shops

Royal Oak officials have made changes in the city’s recreational marijuana ordinance aimed at making sure larger cannabis entrepreneurs gain no advantage in getting a license to open their businesses in the city.

The City Commission amended the ordinance this week at the suggestion of City Attorney David Gillam.

He told commissioners lawyers and staff finalizing formatting an application for the city’swebsite for marijuana businesses found two areas of concern in the city marijuana ordinance.

Gillamsaid the city application for marijuana businesses requires them to first get pre-approval from the state Marijuana Regulatory Agency.

That rule, however, complicated things for the city after officials learned that the state MRA — at least for now— is prioritizing the processing of applications for recreational use marijuana for operators that already have an existingmedical marijuana facility.

“I think comments that have been made by the city commissioners indicate they are interested in having … licensees that aren’t huge corporations,” Gillam said. “The hope is that the city manager will have different types of applicants to choose from.”

The city’s position is that it will accept applications from businesses that prequalify through the state for a recreational marijuana business or a medical marijuana facility.

Commissioners agreed this week that it was not their intent to limit license applicants to only those who already have medical marijuana licenses in the first rush.

The city is expected to complete its application process and open the door to applicants sometime in the coming weeks.

Mayor Michael Fournier

said in July he and a majority of commissioners moved to base part of the licensing criteria on whether businesses are local, with an understanding of the community.

In the end, city commissioners voted to allow four retail marijuana operators to open in Royal Oak — two retailers and two micro-businesses, which also sell retail products.

Micro- businesses can grow, process and sell their own product with no more than 150 marijuana plants.

A maximum of only two businesses — one retailer and one micro-business — can locate alongWoodward Avenue. Or, all four could end up in one of the city’s industrial zones, depending on the requests of the businesses owners.

Royal Oak’s marijuana ordinance also allows for other types of pot businesses, such as testers, growers, transporters and others, to locate only in industrial zones.

A second amendment to the city ordinance thisweek clarified that recreational marijuana applicants are not to begin outreach efforts, like organizing meetings with neighbors, until they have already been pre-qualified for a license through the city manager’s office.

“We’re saying we’re not going to encourage outreach until someone is awarded a slot,” Gillam said. “If we have a 100 applicants, what’s the point of having 100 applicants doing outreach when only a handful are going to get a licensed slot?”