Sumpter Planners table Medical Marijuana zoning amendments

At its Dec. 8 regular meeting, the Sumpter Township Planning Commission tabled proposed revisions to the Medical Marijuana Zoning Ordinance at the request of township attorney Rob Young.
Trustee Matthew Oddy said he spoke with Young and, “He wants us to table this one more time.” Young was not present at the meeting.
Trustee Oddy said Young wants to make sure the proposed additional language doesn’t conflict with the new state law.
Oddy said in the future the township will be looking at approving or disapproving provisions of the new state law. He said many municipalities will be looking at the money marijuana establishments would bring in, since it will cost $5,000 each for them to apply.
He said but there is uncertainty at how much money comes back to the township.
Oddy said they will look at this before the township decides whether to opt in or opt out of approving marijuana establishments for Sumpter.
Planning consultant Chris Atkin of Carlisle Wortman said he is at his office in Sumpter Township two days a week and this week there were two drop-ins and one phone call on marijuana facilities.
He said one wants to put up a multi-million-dollar indoor growing facility in an Industrial zoned site.
“I told them to wait,” Atkin said.
Oddy said he read that said they are going for more enforcement in Colorado because the black market has exploded. He said there is a 25-28% tax on marijuana there and it’s cheaper to buy it on the black market.
He said now in Colorado a caregiver can grow 99 plants and the state is looking to reduce that to 12.
Oddy said people are starting to “ramp up” in Michigan in advance of when the new law takes effect in December 2017.
At the Dec. 8 meeting, the commission also:
• Heard Akers announce that there is a request for a solar farm in the northern part of the township which he will announce to the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees at its Dec. 13 meeting. He said there is a request for a 20-year lease of property, with option for another 20 years. Akers said his firm worked on similar solar farms in Augusta Township and Monroe Township;
• Discussed an example of an Administrative Site Plan Review Ordinance that Atkin worked on for another, larger community. “It’s quite robust,” he said; and
• Discussed the township’s Master Plan and Future Land Use. Akers said he would check with the two previous planning consultants from his firm who worked with Sumpter Township in the past to see what was done on this. Commission chairwoman Jane Stalmack said they hope to get a public hearing on the Master Plan in the first quarter of 2017.