Ypsilanti City Council approves cap on medical marijuana facilities on second reading

Ypsilanti is one step closer to capping the number of medical marijuana dispensaries and grow operations in the city at nine.

At its meeting Tuesday night, the Ypsilanti City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance prohibiting more than nine medical marijuana licenses from being issued in the city.

The law will go into effect in 30 days.

City Council approved the limit by a vote of 4-1. Council Member Brian Robb voted against it, and Mayor Paul Schreiber and Council Member Susan Moeller were absent. Robb voted against the ordinance because he said the city should be limiting the number of facilities through zoning ordinances, not through the number of licenses issued.

"The limit is for an area that is a little over four square miles not be saturated (with medical marijuana facilities)," Jefferson said.

Robb voted against the ordinance because he said the city should be limiting the number of facilities through zoning ordinances, not through the number of licenses issued.

Ward 1 now has four medical marijuana facilities open or in the process of opening; Ward 2 has one dispensary; and ward 3 has three facilities and one more preparing to open.

The new ordinance, which allows six dispensaries and three grow operations, comes after an emergency moratorium failed by a 3-3 vote in early June. That would have immediately prohibited any new medical marijuana facilities from opening, including those that have begun the process of opening.

Council then approved the first reading of the new ordinance at its July 16 meeting.

But at least one person who was already in the process of trying to open a dispensary has said he intends to get the dispensary open before the ordinance is enacted on Sept. 5.

The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act passed overwhelmingly in Ypsilanti. In the 2008 vote on whether or not to legalize medical marijuana, Ward 1 voted 1,672 to 359 in favor of it. Ward 2 voted 2,278 to 577 in favor, and Ward 3 voted 1,833 to 441 in favor.

Ward 1 representatives Jefferson and Richardson proposed the legislation after they said they heard complaints from residents about the number of dispensaries and grow operations, especially in Ward 1 on Ypsilanti’s south side.

Jefferson underscored that Michigan's law doesn’t address medical marijuana dispensaries.

"We've got enough dispensaries and there's a grow facility in the process of opening, so I don't know if we need anymore of those either," he said.