The results and comments from the city’s public medical marijuana survey now are available, with a majority of respondents supporting each of the five uses, or supporting each with restrictions.
The State of Michigan will begin allowing five different medical marijuana licenses starting on Dec. 15 – growing, processing, safety compliance facility (testing), transporting, and provisioning center (selling). At that time, the state will allow local governments to permit any – or none – of these license categories within their jurisdictions.
Before taking action to allow, or not allow, any of these types of medical marijuana licenses, the City Commission directed staff to seek public comment on this new industry in Michigan.
The city received more than 700 responses to the survey, both online and from a paper copy sent in the BC City Connection newsletter, via water bills. Of those, 82 percent of respondents said they are city residents.
Highlights include:
- Question 2 asked, “If the City Commission allows growing, testing, processing, or the selling of medical marihuana in Battle Creek, how much would this worry you?” with a scale of one to 10, one being “not worried at all,” and 10 being “extremely worried.”
On that scale, 65 percent of respondents said they are not worried at all (1), and 16 percent were extremely worried (10). The weighted average is 3.16. - The survey asked if respondents support each of the five uses. Results show that 77-78 percent support each use, or support each use with restrictions.
Based on direction from the City Commission, Planning staff has drafted potential ordinance amendments for all five facility uses. A public hearing will take place at the Dec. 13 Planning Commission meeting to review these. The meeting begins at 4 p.m. in City Commission chambers at City Hall, 10 N. Division St.
While these zoning amendments are meant to stand alone, there are many factors that will be considered as part of a potential licensing ordinance. If the zoning amendments move forward, they will do so with that licensing ordinance, which has yet to be drafted.
City staff have created a Frequently Asked Questions section, related to the industry; and a series of maps showing potential locations for these businesses in the city.
To access these items, and the full public survey results, visit the city’s website at battlecreekmi.gov/planning. Scroll down to the Medical Marihuana section.