Planning Commission discusses proposed marijuana site plan

IRONWOOD – Ankur Rungta, a business owner who hopes to open a retail marijuana establishment called QPS Holdings on 100 W. Cloverland Drive in Ironwood, recently presented an amended site plan for his establishment to the Ironwood Planning Commission, which was discussed in a public hearing on Thursday.

Director of Community Development Tom Bergman clarified to the commission that QBS Holdings does not have a retail marijuana establishment license and is not pre-approved for one. However, they wanted to amend their already proposed site plan in hopes that the city amends their ordinance to allow for additional establishments.

The city commission is currently considering an amendment that will allow for two additional retail marijuana establishments and will hold a public hearing on these changes in the Ironwood Memorial Building auditorium at 5:20 p.m. on Monday.

Rungta wants to amend the QBS Holdings site plan so that customers can drive into the building for curbside service – similar to Rize U.P., another retail marijuana establishment that plans to open the doors of its retail outlet on 411 E. Cloverland Drive this summer. Rungta said this would allow QBS Holdings to make full use of its property while still having the full interior setup as initially planned.

The new site plan with a drive-thru has eight fewer parking spaces than the original site plan, but Rungta said that this amendment would improve the flow of traffic because of the number of customers who would use this new feature.

Bergman said that there is an alleyway in between the parking spaces and the establishment in the site plan and the owners would need some sort of traffic mechanism to prevent the alleyway from being blocked. Rungta said that they plan to have some signage and a roadblock to restrict traffic as it moves into the store, which will be managed by an employee.

The planning commission expressed concern about the business attracting more cars than would be parking spaces and traffic spilling over into the surrounding roads, particularly Lowell Street. Rungta proposed closing the east entrance with traffic cones during their busiest hours and redirecting traffic to the north entrance on Southland Avenue.

The planning commission decided to table this item on Bergman’s recommendation as he wanted to discuss the pros and cons of closing the Lowell Street entrance with City Manager Scott Erickson and Building Inspector Dennis Hewitt.

The planning commission also approved a conditional use permit for a dog grooming home occupation at 210 E. Harding Avenue.