A public hearing will be held in Brighton after voters have their say on a proposed marijuana ordinance.
At their meeting last Thursday, Brighton City Council voted to schedule a public hearing for November 10th, two days after the election, on a proposed ordinance to regulate adult-use recreational marijuana retail businesses and limit them to just two total.
Currently, Brighton has a moratorium on retail pot businesses, which led to a ballot proposal being submitted by an outside group, which formed the Say Yes to Brighton Committee and collected 746 signatures to force the issue.
Regardless of the outcome of the balloting on Nov. 8, the council could approve or deny the proposed ordinance.
That prompted one of the committee’s organizers, businessman Joey Kejbou, to speak at Thursday’s Call to the Public, saying that if the city ends up adopting the proposed ordinance it would effectively ignore voters in Brighton.
“I just don’t think undermining the process of the vote is in the spirit of the democratic process,” said Kejbou, who is associated with Canna Zoned MLS, a marijuana commercial real estate agency.
He also indicated that as currently written, the ordinance would make operating a marijuana retail business in Brighton “impossible.”
Meanwhile, Hartland Township resident Jerry Millen, owner of The Greenhouse dispensary in Walled Lake, cautioned voters to have a clear understanding of what is happening.
“You’re actually voting on the ordinance your city council wrote on November 8th,” he told GIGO News. “That is the ordinance that is going to be voted on. What you see on the ballot is smoke and mirrors. The city ordinance on the city website is what you’re voting on. Keep that in mind. They’re playing games in the sense that if it passes on the ballot, the city’s ordinance is what will be put in place.”
The ordinance he is referring to, and the one being proposed for a hearing on Nov. 10 would, among other things, allow a maximum of two adult-use marijuana retail establishments within the city, but prohibit them within 800 feet of K-12 public and private schools, parks, playgrounds, churches, a state licensed substance use disorder program, and “an establishment that offers regular on-site cultural, educational, artistic, athletic, social, recreational or advisory programs and services primarily to persons 18 years of age and under.”
In contrast, the Nov. 8 ballot proposal only includes 800-foot buffers from schools and parks of more than 1 acre. It also would allow those businesses to offer delivery, drive-thru and exterior walk-up windows.
The specific details of the proposed ordinance can be found HERE
