Lathrup Village voters to decide marijuana proposal Nov. 5

LATHRUP VILLAGE — On Nov. 5, Lathrup Village residents will vote on whether or not the city should repeal the prohibition on cannabis establishments in the city’s boundaries.

Voters will also decide if the city ordinance that currently prohibits all cannabis establishments will be amended to allow cannabis businesses and establish an application process, selection criteria, licenses, fees and regulations for two retail facilities and two safety compliance facilities.

Lathrup Village Mayor Mykale Garrett explained that a group of residents petitioned to get the two proposals back on the ballot after the November 2022 election, when voters rejected cannabis facilities in the city.

“So this is their democratic right to get the petition signed, and they got the correct amount of signatures, and as you can see, it’s on the ballot,” she said. “Now, this has been a very interesting time, because there is a group of people that are against cannabis establishments, and it’s not my place to say whether we get it or not, but I am a staunch supporter of the democratic process, where this will finally be able to go in front of the residents, and the residents will be able to tell us whether or not this is what they want or what they don’t want.”

Garrett said that a group of residents organized to sue the city in an attempt to remove the proposals from the ballot, accusing the city of ignoring “the fraudulent signature and irregularities contained in the petitions” and of violating “the Home City Rule and Michigan Election Law by certifying the ballot proposals.” The case was dismissed since the law requires that all ballot language must be certified at least 82 days before the election on Nov. 5, which would’ve been Aug. 15.

Laurie Kunz was one of the plaintiffs and is a resident of 37 years.

“Basically, the Lathrup Village City Council voted to place the petition on the ballot despite being asked to defer their vote for fraudulent signatures that were obvious to us,” she said. Kunz said the signatures are currently being investigated by a sergeant referred by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. Kunz added that she and the other plaintiffs hired a handwriting expert to examine the signatures.

Kunz said that she is against the proposals because she believes that Lathrup Village doesn’t have the infrastructure to support it.

“It will decrease our property values. We don’t have the police for it, and we’re only a mile and a half big. We can go anywhere. We can go half a mile away and still get it. This is not what our community was made for. It was called the ‘bedroom community’ when it was first started, and we didn’t want restaurants and alcohol, and so we didn’t have that downtown. And now they’re trying to make it into something our city just can’t handle.”

Garrett said she understands where residents are coming from on both sides.

“One thing that I did say in council — I was feeling that cannabis was going to kind of be like liquor stores. Because one thing I have noticed going north, on Southfield Road, starting at Mount Vernon, basically there is a liquor store, or the ability to get liquor within that 1-mile stretch, I think it’s four times or five times. And I just think that that’s a bit much, and so I was thinking the same thing about cannabis, and yes, some residents said, ‘If, you know, you can go around the block to go and get your cannabis from those stores.’ But I also know the financial impact of having cannabis facilities within the boundaries of Lathrup Village. To me, it’s a difficult situation, because I get it. I get you don’t want to have something, cannabis or liquor, on every other corner. But I also get the financial impact. If you’re complaining about Lathrup not having enough revenue, here’s an opportunity to bring in revenue.”

Councilman Bruce Kantor explained that he believes the proposals could be beneficial for the city.

“$120,000 is what we would get for two facilities. At least last year, that’s what the revenue share was, or the excise tax that went back to cities with two facilities.”

Kantor added that the ordinance proposal on the ballot is the same ordinance that was developed a few years ago. “Council, three years ago, passed a marijuana ordinance right around the time of the election where three new council people were going to be voted upon. What they did is they passed the ordinance, but it required a resolution in order for the application process to start. And so council changed, and with the changeover, we decided to put it to the voters, and the voters voted it down,” he said. “And I think the only changes that they made is that they require that it be put into effect within three months of the vote, that the application process starts three months after the vote.”

Kantor clarified that there would only be two retail facilities and two testing facilities.

“Other misinformation that’s happening is they’re sharing a copy of our zoning map and saying that the cannabis locations could be located anywhere where businesses are allowed, and that’s not true. It’s very small pocket areas, because the state marijuana regulations limit within certain distances of churches, of schools, things like that, and in the ordinance that we had created, I think we also added some restrictions to shelters and things like that. And again, that’s the ordinance they adopted, the ordinance that we had created three years ago. So it’s not true that the facilities can go anywhere within the business district.”

Former Lathrup Village Councilman Ian Ferguson is in support of the ballot proposals and worked with a group of residents called “MJ 4 LV” to petition to get the proposals on the November ballot. He said the petition got 450 signatures.

Ferguson said that this isn’t the first time he’s looked at this issue. In 2019, Ferguson was the advisor of the Lathrup Village Marijuana Committee, a group composed of one police officer, the city manager, the Downtown Development Authority director, residents and one council member. The committee spent a year researching to see if marijuana was a viable option for Lathrup Village.

“So we went to Hazel Park, we went to Walled Lake, we went to Ferndale, all of the cities, Madison Heights, and we discussed with those city managers and police chiefs of those cities, ‘What do you see? Is the crime increasing? Is it a problem? Are you actually collecting an excise tax?’ And in every case, the answer is, ‘No crime, no issues with this business, it’s a regular business, we are collecting our excise tax.’ So we brought it back to council, and we said, well, here are the reasons why we should do this. Let’s get our ordinances together so we can actually execute and activate it.’ At that point, everything was approved to proceed. And then I decided not to run. And then we lost our city manager who would have been managing all of that. And so the new council decided, well, maybe we don’t want this.”

Ferguson shared a personal connection to the issue. “There are individuals — my wife, for example; she is suffering from a brain tumor, and we have to do a cannabinoid cancer protocol, and we’re spending it outside of Lathrup. Frankly, I just got sick of doing that, so I’m doing it, not only for my wife, but all the people that are actually going outside of the city that have to get this medication, and it’s just stressful. Some people can’t even find the ride or the transportation to do that.”

He added that the reason for returning this issue to the ballot was because of language confusion that appeared on the last ballot and more awareness surrounding marijuana facilities.

“It really lost by the slimmest of margins, most of which was due to confusion of the language of the ballot proposal. So that’s why we thought, if it was just very simple language where people can understand, and people are now more educated about cannabis, why wouldn’t we bring it back to see if it could pass? I mean, I’m exercising my abilities to be a free thinker and work in this democracy. Why wouldn’t we bring it back? Cities are dynamic. They change every second of every day. So that’s why we brought it back.”

To view the ballot proposals, visit www.candgnews.com/news/elections.

To learn more about MJ4LV, visit www.mj4lv.com.