MEDICAL MARIJUANA ZONING ORDINANCE ADVANCES IN ADRIAN

ADRIAN, Mich. - The Adrian Planning Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to
recommend a zoning ordinance to the Adrian City Commission to regulate
medical marijuana caregiver facilities.

Planning commissioner Charles Jacobson cast the only vote against the
proposed ordinance.

The ordinance now goes to the city commission, which must approve it
before it can become law.

The ordinance restricts medical marijuana caregiver facilities to B-2,
or "community business," zoning districts. The city's B-2 districts
are on North Main Street, South Main Street and Beecher Street.

Among other things, the ordinance also:

n Prohibits medical marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet of each
other or of schools, or within 500 feet of churches, public parks or
playgrounds or state-licensed day care facilities.

n Prohibits the facilities from being situated adjacent to or
abutting a single-family residential district.

n Prohibits the sale of other products or services at medical
marijuana caregiver facilities.

The ordinance also limits such facilities to one sign and limits the
sign size, prohibits the facilities from growing marijuana outdoors
and limits nuisances such as dust, odor or glare that might be
associated with growing or processing marijuana.

Drive-through or curbside service at medical marijuana facilities is
prohibited.

Finally, the law requires medical marijuana facilities to be licensed
under an as-yet unapproved ordinance that is being written.

The city commission will have to approve the licensing ordinance
before it takes effect.

The recommended zoning ordinance drops language in an earlier version
that explicitly stated existing medical marijuana facilities would not
be "grandfathered." That presumably means that two existing
facilities, Medicinal Solutions Wellness Center, 227 N. Winter St.,
and The MMM Alliance, 112 W. Maumee St., will be grandfathered under
the law and will not have to move.

Both facilities are in the B-3, or central business district, zoning
designation.

The recommended ordinance also drops earlier language that would have
limited medical marijuana facilities to one caregiver.

After the meeting, Jacobson said he voted against recommending the
ordinance because he was not satisfied the commission did everything
possible to be sure the rest of the community would be safe and not
intruded on by medical marijuana facilities.

Part of the problem is that some aspects of the state law governing
medical marijuana are still to be clarified, including in some pending
court cases, Jacobson said.

Michigan's medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2008, allows
registered patients and caregivers to grow a limited number of
marijuana plants for use by the patients. Caregivers are limited to
five patients each.

Planning commission members Chad Johnson, Brian Watson and Carl Phipps
were not at the meeting.