By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
NILES, MI – Whether to allow retail marijuana businesses in Niles Township is a familiar issue for voters in the south county community. They will be asked to vote this Nov. 4 on marijuana-related proposals for the third time in the last three years.
While voters defeated a proposal to allow retail marijuana businesses in 2022, they approved a similar proposal last year. Since then, Niles Township officials have adopted a zoning ordinance amendment earlier this year to govern marijuana establishments.
Township Board members voted to allow for an unlimited number of marijuana licenses and ended up issuing 29 licenses to marijuana businesses. Their only limit was that the businesses could only be located on a one-and-a-half mile stretch of South 11th Street from Fulkerson Road to the state line.
The process they set up with the zoning ordinance amendment was put on hold this summer when two petition drives took place. Those petition drives have resulted in the two ballot proposals before voters next Tuesday.
People will be asked whether the zoning amendment approved by the township board in the spring that allows marijuana establishments in the township should be repealed. The second proposal asks whether all marijuana businesses should be prohibited in the township.
People have spoken out both for and against the two proposals and for and against marijuana in general. Some have also questioned the township’s decision to allow for so many marijuana businesses, while others have questioned the motives of those bringing one of the petitions.
People speaking at an August township board meeting asked why the township didn’t limit the number of marijuana businesses they allow. They were opposed to the high number of licenses granted more than the marijuana businesses themselves.
Township Supervisor Marge Durm-Hiatt responded then that the township attorney had advised them that limiting the number of licenses they granted could open the township up to lawsuits.
As for the petition drives, people have alleged that the petition drives were not grassroot efforts but orchestrated by people outside the area and a marijuana business inside the city of Niles.
Information filed in the Berrien County Clerk’s Office shows that the Committee Against Unlimited Pot Shops in Niles Charter Township is based in Troy, Michigan. The person listed on the local ballot question committee form has not returned phone calls or emails requesting comment.
Local businesses have been among those hardest hit by the marijuana issue being up in the air. Several property owners along the South 11th Street corridor had contracts to sell their properties to developers before the proposals were put on the ballot and the township stopped processing license requests.
One longtime business, Jay’s Lounge, had been trying to operate both their original Niles Township location as well as their new location just across the state line in Indiana but announced last week that they were closing the Niles Township site.
Social media posts from Jay’s Lounge indicated that they continue to hold out hope that voters will defeat the two proposals and that the Niles Township location will be able to be sold to a developer and become a marijuana business.
The owner of another local business, Michiana Signs and Lighting, is frustrated with how the situation has turned out when it comes to marijuana. Ken Fellows said that a lot of the properties along South 11th were sold on contingency and many developers have backed out with everything up in the air with the ballot proposals.
Fellows said he and others have not only lost the chance to sell their properties, some have also lost money when they put down money to buy other buildings for their businesses to locate to. He said businesses are in limbo waiting to see what happens with the Nov. 4 vote.
Durm-Hiatt wouldn’t comment on the two ballot proposals when contacted last week, but she and other board members expressed frustration at the August meeting where they placed the proposals on the ballot.
She noted in August that the township has already collected $145,000 in nonrefundable license fees and had hoped to reap over $1.6 million a year in state excise tax revenue once the marijuana businesses were up and running. She said then that the plan was to spend the extra money on roads and parks.
The Niles Township ballot proposals also come at a time when the marijuana business statewide is in a state of flux. At least one national company, Kisa Enterprises, which owns a marijuana business in Buchanan, has announced their decision to close all their shops in Michigan.
In addition, Michigan marijuana businesses are facing other obstacles. The recently approved state budget raises the wholesale tax on cannabis and proposed bills in the state legislature would limit the number of businesses allowed in municipalities based on population.