KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM/FM) — Kalamazoo city commissioners have multiple decisions to make on how it wants to accommodate the medical marijuana industry.
But, before it does, the city plans to hold public input sessions over the next few months.
City Attorney Clyde Robinson’s recommendation is that the commission allow distributors, testing labs, growers and provisioning centers to locate in the city, if they can find a suitable location, but limit the number of provisioning centers to seven. That would be one for every 10,000 residents, which he says seems to be the industry standard.
He said, under the city charter approved by voters in 2012, there will be three dispensaries that will have additional requirements under the city charter, but will also have to meet all of the provisions established for a state licensed provisioning center.
Robinson is proposing a lottery to hand out the limited number of provisioning center permits, to make it perfectly fair and avoid a tent city from sprouting on the steps of city hall.
Each will also have to meet stringent state requirements, which are still being drafted.
Robinson said someone is going to get rich selling medical marijuana, but it isn’t going to be Kalamazoo’s treasury.
He says there will be some sales tax revenue coming to the city, but by the time it’s divided between the state, and all the other interested parties, the cities share will be modest, anywhere from $15,000 to $150,000, depending on how many other facilities there are in Michigan. Vice Mayor Don Cooney was disappointed, saying there is no way they are going to fix the streets with that kind of cash.
Through some quirk in the law, counties, which have nothing to do with regulating, overseeing or managing the facilities, will get more of the revenue.
It will be months and many more meetings before a final ordinance is adopted.
