EMPIRE PLANNERS HAVE TIME TO CONSIDER MARIJUANA REGS

The Empire Township Planning Commission is taking a hiatus of sorts
for most of the summer after holding a brief meeting last week.

Commission chairman Richard Figura said in a phone report Tuesday
that the commission met May 24 for one hour. "We only have one thing
on our plate and that is medical marijuana," he said.

Figura is a lawyer who has written draft ordinances for other
communities seeking to regulate where medical marijuana dispensaries
may go. But Figura and Empire planners still have more questions than
answers when it comes to how much control a local government may
exercise on a dispensary.

"A lot of us went to that presentation the county did a couple of
weeks ago. I think we came out of it with even more questions than we
had going in," Figura said.

The Empire Township Board adopted a six-month moratorium on new
applications for medical marijuana dispensaries in April. With the
township planning commission not scheduling meetings until August,
Figura said members will have time to think about how -- and if --
the township can regulate dispensaries.

"Our biggest problem is deciding what we want to do. It could be we
decide to do nothing," he said.