Charlevoix city leaders don't want medical marijuana storefronts
CHARLEVOIX, MI -- Charlevoix city leaders do not want marijuana shops taking over city storefronts.
For the past year, the city has set a moratorium banning the distribution of medical marijuana while the city determines how they want to deal with it.
Time is running out on the temporary ban, and the city's plan is to allow it, but behind closed doors.
The City of Charlevoix and Charlevoix Township don't want medical marijuana dispensaries as part of their street landscape.
"It's just something that the city council and planning commission feels that that's not the appropriate thing for the City of Charlevoix," said city planner Mike Spencer.
Here's a rough look at what the city is proposing: a caregiver can grow medicine in their home, in residential areas, and give medicine to five patients if they have the right permits. The proposal also prohibits these operations from being within 1,000 feet of schools and churches.
"They felt that the dispensed approach in residential areas was definitely in line with what the act called for. The act allows an individual use of medical marijuana in a private setting, and so they felt than an individual home was the best place for that," said Spencer.
The full list of regulations hasn't been drafted yet, but one it is, the public will have a chance to have their voice heard and the hope is to have the new plan in place by October.
