By Jim Bloch
More than five months after the planning commission voted against the special use permit for a marijuana retail store at 1814 10th Street, the Port Huron City Council voted to approve the dispensary.
The council voted 5-1 at its regular meeting Jan. 13 to approve the request from MS Industries, LLC for the recreational pot shop inside a long-shuttered credit union, which will be renovated by the company.
Council members Barbara Payton, Sherry Archibald, Conrad Haremza, Terri Lamb and Bob Mosurak voted in favor of the dispensary. Council member Jeff Pemberton was absent, although City Clerk Cyndee Jonseck read a statement from him in support of the store. Mayor Anita Ashford voted against the proposal.
After a public hearing on the matter in September, the council voted to postpone making a ruling on the request. The company, city officials and residents recently held a roundtable to hash out the issues involved with the permit request.
“We asked what we can do to make this more palatable and acceptable,” said the attorney for MS Industries. “We made some fairly extensive changes to the site plan. We removed one of the entrances and two of the exits that were located on Division Street and moved the only point of entry and egress to 10th Street… We added additional landscaping to address a border with one of the landowners … and trees to further mitigate any sound, light or noise pollution.”
“I’m not worried so much about how pretty you can make things,” said Ashford, explaining her vote, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on the city’s website. “I’m more worried about people’s lives than I am anything else.”
The city assessor said that none of the current pot shops had negatively impacted nearby property values, said the attorney, and the chief of police said none of the shops had triggered increases in crime. The attorney said that the company performed a traffic study that concluded that the pot shop would result in no appreciable increase in traffic.
“Part of the (planning commission) review is looking at the eight-point criteria to see what the impact might be on surrounding properties,” said David Haynes, the city’s planning director, in
September. “This property met all the requirements. It is within the proper distance from schools, daycares, children’s parks.”
“I will remind you that it’s the recommendation of the administration and the city manager to approve this site plan,” said City Manager James Freed before the vote.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, MI. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
