Belleville Planners turn down medical marijuana dispensary

The council chambers were packed with audience members on Oct. 8 when the Belleville Planning Commission voted unanimously to turn down requested rezoning that would put a medical marijuana dispensary at 187 Main Street.
Karl Staffeld stood before the crowded room and identified himself as the new owner of 187 Main. He told the planning commission he was requesting a change in zoning from B-2 (Central Business District) to I-2 (Industrial) to establish a Medical Marijuana Certification and Assessment Clinic and Dispensary.
He said the former dental clinic is boarded up now because they are doing asbestos abatement so they can “give it another 100 years of life.”
He said he was married for 20 years when his wife contracted ovarian cancer. She received the best care in the world from St. Joe Hospital, he said, but the only thing that gave her relief was medical marijuana.
“It’s necessary for people to have this drug,” Staffeld said.
Staffeld included a picture of the proposed seven foot wide and ten foot tall sign that he would put at the corner of Main and Second streets for “Number 1 Medical.” The business would be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
He said there are only seven properties within the zoning ordinance that allow medical marijuana business and they are not available for purchase or lease. The I-2 zone is on the other side of the railroad tracks along Sumpter Road.
Planning commission chairman Steve Jones said the commission went through the Master Plan in 2006 and 2011 to set up the current plan and it was something the rest of the citizens and the commission were happy with.
“We have an industrial section and looked many times to see if our zoning was right,” Jones said. “We don’t believe in spot zoning.”
He said this small parcel in the middle of the city’s B-2 section doesn’t fit in with the Master Plan. He said if the medical clinic would close the rezoned property would allow any kind of industrial use for the property.
Commissioner Becky Hasen asked Staffeld if he checked the zoning before buying the property. He said he did.
He said it’s 3,000 feet from school property and the property around it is all zoned business – B-2 and B-3.
“Also, there are a number of I-2 properties, but the majority are within the school zone and of the remaining properties only seven are outside of the zone and none were available,” he said.
“We will deny rezoning. It does not fit our master plan,” Jones said.
Supporter Azar Sadeghi got up to say that there is no property available to purchase in I-2 and to ask how a medical marijuana clinic could be categorized as Industrial?
Also, she said, she is an immigrant and upholds the laws. She said she was hoping the commission would allow people to make this clinic.
“I find your decision arbitrary,” Sadeghi said, adding, “I would like to know how you can do this contrary to the health and safety of the community?”
She said, perhaps when that zoning was proposed, it was thought growing marijuana would be better in industrial zoning, but not a clinic.
Jones said the request before the commission is to change the zoning from business to industrial – “Spot zoning B-2 to Industrial.”
Commissioner Michael Renaud said he worked on the Master Plan and the I-2 was for non-personal businesses, such as bakeries and other businesses that were not suitable for Main Street. He said the commission cannot rezone a lot that’s not large enough for I-2 uses.
“I wouldn’t be comfortable putting Industrial in the medical clinic,” Renaud said.
Sadhegi said last Wednesday the federal agencies said they would not enforce laws against medical marijuana clinics. “How can we get you to change?” she asked.
Jones said the commission does not wish to get into the political conversation she wishes to get into. He said rezoning is before them and that would be for the life of the parcel and there is no guarantee what could be there in the future.
“We spent a lot of time on the Master Plan and reaffirmed it… We are looking at spot zoning,” Jones said.
Sadeghi said the I-2 parcels are not available for sale or rent and the building official Rick Rutherford said they still would have to come to the city to request setting up a clinic there. She said it is impossible to set up a clinic.
City attorney Steve Hitchcock said it is not “impossible.” He said seven parcels could be purchased and the city is not obligated to make them available to anyone.
Phil Miller, who said he was running for mayor, said the city is treating the clinics like adult entertainment.
Renaud said in 2010 the city council spent a year drafting these documents and nobody was here questioning them. He said that evening they were not here to discuss the ordinance but to consider rezoning.
Miller said the city should redo the zoning and separate the growing and dispensaries, since there are the nuisances of regular growing operations.
Renaud suggested Miller take that up with the city council.
Renaud made the motion and Jesse Marcotte seconded to deny the rezoning request and the commission unanimously passed the motion. Then most of the audience headed out of the meeting room.
Special Land Use – 533 Main
Next on the agenda was Lisa Sullivan’s proposal to tear down the late Chesley Odom office building at 533 Main Street to construct a one-story building for her Puro Medicine Wellness Program. She has been located for two years in Belle Plaza where she teaches nutrition, helps people figure out what’s causing their health problems, and helps work on the problems. She said a patient usually is helped for seven months.
She resides on Harmony Lane in Van Buren Township and has purchased the property from Virginia Odom pending approval from the city of Belleville for her building.
The Master Plan calls for a two-story building and she wants to build just one story and she does not wish to take up 90% of the property as required by the ordinances because she wants to be able to use some of the lakeside yard for her patients.
Her architect, Jacob Root, said it would double the cost for a two-story building. He said the building has been vacant for some time.
Jones said the city requires two stories with the possibility of residents living above businesses which would have more people walking downtown.
Root said they want to eliminate the basement. He said two sets of stairs and an elevator would make the cost “dissuadable.”
Building Official Rutherford said the basement is full of trash and they would have to see if the structure is safe. It would have to be brought into compliance with current ordinances if they renovated the current building. The building has been standing vacant since a fire while the cupcake business was there.
Sullivan said her business accepts 20 patients a month and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Patients use a massage therapist and only one or two patients are in the office at a time because they concentrate so heavily on each person.
She said they planned on having ten parking spaces available, but if they put in a second story they would need more parking.
Root said if the city denies this plan and required a two-story building, it will never be built.
“I like the unique look of the one story,” Sullivan said.
Commissioner Matthew Wagner asked if the whole structure was shot and Rutherford said it would take an engineer to do the testing to find out.
Wagner asked if the basement had to go and Root said the basement doesn’t go with the way the business is run.
Rutherford said somebody had been living in the building and then the basement flooded and they left everything there. He said the wet debris is up to his chest.
Sullivan said her plan is to start building in April. Before they spend money on a site plan they wanted to know if the city was agreeable.
She added that she pays $10,000 a month on advertising.
Marcotte, who had been on the planning commission from 2007 to 2014 and was now on the commission again and back for his first meeting, said he always had a goal of being consistent.
“I’d like to follow the Master Plan,” he said.
“I don’t want to see it vacant forever,” she said of the parcel on the lake, asking if there couldn’t be exceptions to the two-story rule and using 90% of the property for a building?
Renaud called that a “slippery slope” where you could eventually end up with no Master Plan at all.
City Councilman Tom Fielder said the city now has a two-story philosophy. He said there was nothing to preclude Sullivan from getting a partner upstairs, maybe a lawyer.
“I’ve heard of Van Buren Township people who would like to locate here,” Fielder said.
When Sullivan asked what was the main issue, Jones said it was the two stories.
“It will stay a burned-out building. It will cost $3 million to build what you want,” architect Root said.
“You can go back to the drawing board,” Jones said to Sullivan.
City Councilwoman Kim Tindall suggested that Building Official Rutherford could advise her.
“As much as I agree with rules, the original intent was to get people downtown,” Wagner said. “The more I look at the property, it should be a single story. We have a lake. We don’t want to block the lake… By putting another two-story up, we’re hiding what we want to show, why people want to come here…”
The commission then voted 5-1 to reject the special land use request, with Wagner casting the only no vote.
Five members of the audience complimented the commission on their professional handling of the issues.
“I commend your stick-to-it-tiveness,” Councilwoman Tindall said. “You stuck with the plan … and that’s the plan.”