Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM LAVENTURE
Ironwood — The Ironwood City Commission did not act on the city planning commission recommendation to increase the number of available marijuana retail establishment licenses on Monday, with members adding the matter could be revisited after a year or longer.
With the likelihood that the businesses that were tenatively approved for city licenses, pending state of Michigan approval, will not start operating in less than six months, the commission hesitated to establish a date to review the question of adding more licenses. The appropriate time to revisit the question would be during the annual license renewal review process of the businesses, according to city manager Scott Erickson.
Mayor Annette Burchell said she recognized the appeal of increasing licenses with the potential of increased revenue, more jobs and the opportunity for new construction and to rehabilitate blighted commercial properties. However, she reminded the commission of the split decision to approve the initial ordinance.
“We crafted … a conservative ordinance to enter this market to encourage the most competitive and attractive proposals for the community, and that’s what we received,” Burchell said. “I believe that business owners, including those who applied for these retail and micro business licenses, made their investment decisions and proposals based on the parameters of the ordinance, and changing the rules after the proposals were accepted is not fair to the applicants and not fair to our community.”
The current ordinance “welcomes marijuana without marijuana defining Ironwood,” Burchell said. Licenses without the benefit of review could potentially damage the city’s “Find Your North” identity as a family-centered, outdoor recreational community with a regional medical hospital, an airport and a budding arts community if the commission is not careful, she said.
“Ironwood is so much more than that,” Burchell said.
Community members, marijuana establishment owners and their engineers and attorneys were present or called in to the hybrid in-person and virtual meeting to support or oppose the proposal to increase the number of marijuana establishment licenses from two in each of five categories to up to six, as recommended by the planning commission at its July 1 meeting.
Those in support said they anticipated that Ironwood’s location as a border city and distance from other retail outlets in the Upper Peninsula would bring enough business for everyone and additional tax revenues along with support for the city’s other business sectors.
Scott Bissell, planning commission member, said the unanimous planning commission support was from considering “the facts.” He said Ironwood fits the model of Trinidad, Colorado.
While the volume of marijuana sales is higher in the major metropolitan areas of Colorado, the city of Trinidad has a population of just 8,000 but has generated millions in annual revenue as a border city with New Mexico, where recreational marijuana is not yet legal. He said that Trinidad has 23 retail marijuana licenses which has lifted the city from poverty to the point where the local government used its slush fund to provide cash support to residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city crime index has also decreased since the start of the marijuana businesses, he said.
“We need the revenue because we are not seeing the businesses that we want to come here to raise this revenue,” Bissell said. “All I ask of the commissioners is to just look at the facts.”
Marijuana business owners who spoke in opposition to increasing the licenses said that designing business plans for the application was expensive and used information based on the two license model. The potential difference in annual sales by suddenly adding more competition at the outset is potentially troublesome and would require new business planning, they said.
Commissioner Joe Cayer said that increasing the business licenses in the interest of attracting out-of-state businesses, is essentially encouraging the trafficking of marijuana back to states where it is still illegal.
“That is what I don’t like about it,” Cayer said.
Commissioner Jim Mildren said that a workable ordinance emerged from the turmoil and division of a two-year process. It is a sign of good government to stick with the plan “irregardless of what comes up.”
“We can reevaluate down the road,” Mildren said.
Commissioner Rick Semo said he was part of the team that designed the ordinance. There was consideration to start with a higher number, but the understanding that the city can always increase licenses, but not always reduce them resulted in a uniform decision to start slow and evaluate.
“Now, we’re kind of jumping the gun on a conversation,” Semo said.
Commissioner Kim Corcoran said she is impressed with the business growth in the other cities with commercial marijuana businesses already in place. She said that all signs show that these businesses will bring living wage jobs and much revenue to Ironwood — but that it is also important to take time to evaluate growth to see if the ordinance should stay as it is or needs to be amended.
“Let’s see how our ordinance works,” Corcoran said.
