MEDICAL MARIJUANA ZONING PROPOSED

ADRIAN, Mich. - The Adrian Planning Commission hammered out a
proposed zoning ordinance Tuesday to regulate medical marijuana
distribution facilities in the city.

The proposed ordinance will be the subject of a public hearing at the
commission's next meeting, Feb. 1, after which the commission could
vote to recommend it to the Adrian City Commission.

The city commission would have to approve the ordinance for it to become law.

The proposed ordinance would limit medical marijuana distribution
facilities to B-2 business districts and require a zoning exception permit.

Parts of North Main Street, South Main Street and Beecher Street are
areas that contain B-2 districts.

Under the proposed ordinance, no more than one caregiver as defined
by Michigan's Medical Marijuana Act could use a facility. That means
that no more than five medical marijuana patients could use a given
facility, since state law limits caregivers to a maximum of five patients.

No medical marijuana facility would be allowed within 1,000 feet of
another medical marijuana facility. Medical marijuana facilities also
could not be within 500 feet of a church, school, park or playground,
licensed day care facility or residentially zoned district.

Smells, noises or other nuisances that might be connected to the
growing of medical marijuana could not extend beyond the facility's property.

Finally, any existing medical marijuana facilities in the city would
not be "grandfathered" under the law, meaning they would have to meet
the one caregiver provision and the B-2 zoning district provision.

Adrian has two known medical marijuana facilities, one in the 200
block of North Winter Street and one in the 100 block of West Maumee Street.

Michigan's medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2008, allows
certified patients having certain debilitating medical conditions to
grow and use a limited amount of marijuana. Registered medical
marijuana caregivers are allowed to grow a limited number of
marijuana plants and distribute marijuana to not more than five patients.

Caregivers may be compensated for costs associated with giving care
to registered medical marijuana patients, according to the website of
the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules. Such
compensation does not constitute selling a controlled substance, the
website says.

According to the website of the Michigan Department of Community
Health, which administers the medical marijuana law, there is no
place in Michigan where marijuana can be legally purchased.

During their meeting Tuesday, planning commission members debated
whether medical marijuana facilities should be permitted as home
businesses in residential districts as opposed to being in allowed in
business districts.

Commission member Chuck Jacobson initially took the position that the
facilities should be permitted as delivery-only home businesses and
be restricted to one caregiver.

"I think you can police it better in a residential (district)," Jacobson said.

Commission member Mike Clegg, who also sits on the city commission, disagreed.

"You think you're controlling it, but you've lost all control once it
goes into a residential district," Clegg said.

Commissioners also debated whether the facilities should be allowed
to operate as cooperatives with many caregivers - and hence many
patients - or whether they should be restricted to one or two caregivers.

The question was whether severely restricting the number of
caregivers in a facility would leave the city open to the charge of
effectively prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries.

"That means you're going to be in a commercial district and you can
have at most five customers," commission chairman Mike Jacobitz said.

In the end, all the commission members voted to proceed to the public
hearing with an ordinance restricting the facilities to the B-2
business districts and restricting them to one caregiver per facility.

Last month, the city commission imposed a 120-day moratorium on any
new medical marijuana facilities in the city while the planning
commission and city commission worked on a zoning ordinance
regulating the facilities.