By Rosemary Horvath
Herald Correspondent
[private]Alma city commissioners are preparing to award licenses to three retail recreational marijuana dispensaries at their April 25 regular meeting.
But first, as they learned at their meeting last week, commissioners must whittle down from four interested businesses.
The planning commission approved designs of three existing buildings and one proposed for a vacant lot on Wright Avenue which will require approval of a driveway approach from the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Planning members Bill Gorton, David Justin and Ellen Richter were absent from that meeting.
Currently, city commissioners are tasked with scoring candidate applications based on criteria such as business ownership, financial stability, business experience, business operations, facility improvements, maintenance, building reuse, security, community outreach and relations.
A maximum score of 65 points is possible.
The four contenders are:
DNVK LAPEER INC that operates the Consume Cannabis Co, a medical marijuana provisionary center at 528 W. Warwick Drive. Last year, a Consume representative had initially informed the city it wished to expand into recreational sales, stating that medical sales alone no longer offer cost benefits. Of the four medical marijuana licenses the city awarded in 2018, only Consume had opened an Alma dispensary.
MPM-R XVII LLC (dba Pure Lapeer), 1405 Wright Ave, formerly a Pizza Hut location, in a Business 2 zoning district. This license originally was awarded to 224 East Center Street but that property has reverted to residential zoning.
1465 Wright Avenue, 1.38-acre vacant lot owned by Isabella Bank of Mt. Pleasant.
1325 East Superior, formerly a Lobdell Company property, zoned in General Industrial. The 5.64 acres according to the county GIS map is registered in the name of Justin Luneak LLC.
Mayor Greg Mapes refrained from voting as a member at both the planning and city commission meetings after acknowledging the owner of the 1405 Wright Avenue property is his employer, Isabella Bank of Mt. Pleasant.
Mapes said he will not participate in licensee discussion April 25 either, but agreed with Commissioner Roger Allman the commission as a whole ought to discuss applications rather than have a subcommittee decide a recommendation.
City Manager Aeric Ripley forewarned members that applications contain proprietary information not to be shared publicly.
City Attorney Adam Florey added that notes on scoring would be exempt from Freedom of Information requests but could become public once a final decision is made.
Commissioner Roxann Harrington did not attend the March 28 meeting.
Street projects
A public hearing was set for April 11 when property owners may respond to costs linked to special assessment districts for several construction projects including sanitary leads and new sidewalk on Harvard Avenue as part of capital improvement street reconstruction. Another special assessment district will be part of new sanitary sewer leads north of Washington Avenue’s sanitary sewer replacement project.
Rate increases
The city staff has proposed three options to consider for staying ahead of rising costs over the next five years for city services such as water, wastewater, trash, recycling, and yard waste.
Ripley said option one is favored by staff. It “jumpstarts” expenses by fully funding water and wastewater costs the first year, and catches up the water fund and yard waste fund operations. By year five, as costs escalate annually, a monthly increase would be $54.38.
Assumptions will be a family of four will continue using 4500 gallons of water/sewer in a month and a low interest loan or bond would be acquired for capital projects. Another assumption is for the city to acquire state grant and/or federal grant funding.
Ripley noted the last increase for water rates was in the 2011-12 fiscal year./[private]