By Jim Bloch
The Port Huron City Council recently voted unanimously to reverse the planning commission’s decision to deny a special use permit allowing a marijuana retail store to open at 1814 10th Street.
The council scheduled a public hearing on the matter for the regular council meeting Sept. 9.
The recreational weed shop is slated to occupy the empty bank at the intersection of 10th and Division streets.
“I move to accept and file the (planning commission’s) notification, but choose not to accept the recommendation and schedule our own public hearing,” said city council member Jeff Pemberton, as heard on the recording of the city council’s meeting Aug. 12, posted on YouTube.
Council member Anita Ashford seconded Pemberton’s motion.
The council also voted to overturn the planning commission’s denial of a zoning change on a lot contiguous to the store, to be used for parking, from singe and two-family residential to commercial. A public hearing on the rezoning will also be held Sept. 9.
The planning commission met Aug. 6. Five residents opposed the marijuana store, to be called Leaf and Bud Port Huron and owned by MS Industries, LLC. They cited increased traffic, negative impacts on property values and the fear of downgrading a residential area. Two people said they were not opposed the operation.
Two planning commission members voted in favor of the special use permit and three opposed it. Robert Arnold, Jr. and Eric Witter voted to approve the permit. Thomas Gaffney, James Dewey and Gary Olmstead voted against it. Pemberton is a member of the planning commission but missed the meeting.
If the city council accepted the planning commission’s decision, City Manager James Freed explained that the city would likely face a legal challenge from MS Industries and would lose in court.
Five licenses have been approved and two stores have opened in the city.
“Several years ago, the mayor and council were working on drafting an ordinance to legalize recreational marijuana,” which the council adopted, said Freed, providing some historical context for the issue. “During that same time, an outside group of special interests drafted their own ordinance and brought forth a voter referendum on it.”
Nearly three-quarters of Port Huron voters approved the new ordinance.
“That ordinance usurped ours,” said Freed. “We now have to live by the voter-approved ordinance.”
Under the new ordinance, Freed said, the planning commission should have approved the permit.
“They have no real merit to deny it,” Freed said. “We will lose if we get sued.”
Mayor Pauline Repp said that the city attorney had submitted a letter to the council making the same points.
“We will schedule a public hearing and it will be my recommendation that this has to be approved because it complies with the ordinance and we simply have no legal right to not do it,” said Freed. “There’s some people who do not like the location, but that’s something that should have been thought about when the ordinance was voted on and enacted, not after the fact.”
Freed added that there have been no problems at the dispensaries that have opened.
“We have not had a single issue,” Freed said. “We have not had crimes issues. We have not had traffic issues… It’s not been the scary thing we all thought it would be. Pleasantly surprised.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
