VILLAGE EXTENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY MORATORIUM FOR REGIONAL INPUT

Regional medicinal marijuana talks now have an additional four months
to occur between the village and neighboring townships, after the
Village Council voted to extend its moratorium for the fourth time.

The first meeting could be held as early as by the end of this month.

It's still unclear what exactly the regional meeting will be about or
what each municipality will gleam from it, but Council Trustee Jim
Smith, who posited the regional approach in the first place, said it
was worthwhile regardless of the outcome.

"I think it's in everybody's best interest," Smith said, whether the
meeting deals with ordinances and/or police enforcement, or simply
ends in information sharing.

Smith and fellow trustee Donna Fisher said that they feel that
village is "way ahead" of many other municipalities after attending a
medical marijuana workshop last month.

"It came across (to me) that going slow was the wisest approach ...
we need to make sure that we take the time to look at all aspects," Smith said.

Although the regional approach and moratorium were supported by
council, many involved in the discussion at the regular meeting
Monday night expressed concerns.

"How are we going to proceed on this process," said Trustee Paul
Cousins, who had further investigated other regional efforts like the
ones at Eaton County and between city of Holland and its neighbors.

"In those cases each ordinance was a little different, some unit may
want to put in the clinics, some may want to have a growing area -
they were all different," Cousins said. "I thought the emphasis was
on coordination of police."

In Eaton County's case law enforcement officials drove a regional
enforcement focus and in Holland's case ordinance and law enforcement
issues were blended together.

Cousins said that he felt like the council was going to be "marching
in time" while everybody else caught up, but Smith felt the process
would move swiftly if the townships have "the will to be involved."

Council Trustee Ray Tell questioned the value of having an ordinance
when neighboring townships aren't on board with what the village is doing.

Allison Bishop included a memo in the meeting packet with a snapshot
of what each township has done to tackle the medical marijuana
regulation question thus far.

Scio Township has taken no action, Webster has a comprehensive
ordinance review in the works, Dexter and Lima both have their
respective planning commissions considering ordinance amendments at this time.

Trustee Jim Carson wished aloud that the council had brought the
regional question up sooner, now that the village has collectively
been hammering out regulation internally since August.

He also voiced his concern over what the different circumstances of
each community would mean for regional talks.

"Lima Township and Webster and Dexter have completely different
issues than we have," he said. "We approach this from dispensaries.
Their concern is going to be cultivation, not home occupation,
closeness to schools or dispensaries. Their concern is going to be
farmland ... cultivation centers. That's not our concern."

Planning Commission Chairman Matt Kowalski was at the council meeting
and was invited to speak during the council discussion.

He expressed concern over how much the village's drafted ordinance
could change after regional talks.

"I think the difference here is that we've actually written an
ordinance, but I think the ordinance is pretty specific about the
limitations to the village of Dexter," he said. "The townships around
us have very little land to zone commercial."

He said that it makes sense to create consistency for the sake of
enforcement, but urged the village council to figure out what it
wants to get out of regional talks.

"I think we need to get across what we're after here," Kowalski said.
"At the end of the day we're going to have three or four separate
ordinances. There is no ordinance that is going to apply to all. I
think it's a great idea to get together and share, but I think we
need to have a clear focus in mind."

Aside from the regional meeting discussion, some changes were made to
the draft ordinance, such as extending the buffer between libraries
and schools from 500 to 1,000 feet.

The fourth moratorium expires on July 19.