ANN ARBOR, MI — Ann Arbor OK’d plans for the city’s first marijuana consumption lounge this past week, and it could be the first of over two dozen like it in the city.
“We are going to allow 28,” said City Planner Alexis DiLeo, citing a cap in the city’s regulations.
When City Council decided in October 2019 to give the green light to the recreational marijuana industry in the city, it limited the number of permits for marijuana micro-businesses, dispensaries and consumption centers to 28 each.
While the city has since gotten about all the dispensaries it’s going to see under the cap, the door is still open to potentially 27 more entrepreneurs interested in creating spaces where customers can consume cannabis onsite.
But they’re not lining up just yet, DiLeo told the Planning Commission as it approved a permit this week for what’s expected to be Michigan’s first marijuana consumption lounge — in the house next to the Liberty Provisioning Center marijuana dispensary on Ashley Street downtown.
“This is our first taker,” DiLeo said, noting marijuana consumption lounges don’t seem to be as popular a business proposal as dispensaries.
Michigan’s first marijuana consumption lounge coming to Ann Arbor
It’s tough to find a model that’s profitable, but the main reason why no one has opened a marijuana consumption lounge in the last year or so is strictly because of COVID-19, said Mark Passerini, co-founder of the Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary on Main Street.
“COVID kind of put a kibosh on all things social,” he said.
Once the pandemic is over, he fully expects to see more marijuana consumption lounges in Ann Arbor, but it’s not something Om is planning at this time, he said.
“But I am thrilled that it’s happening,” he said of the first one coming. “I’ve been waiting for this all my life and I feel like it’s something that is long overdue.”
Marijuana tourists who visit Ann Arbor can’t legally smoke in their hotels, cars or in public places like parks, so this gives them a legal place to light up, he said.
Permit conditions state the lounge can be used only by customers of the adjacent dispensary.
In addition to a city permit, the owner needs to obtain and maintain a state license for the lounge.
The company behind the business is Holistic Industries, which describes itself as the country’s largest privately held cannabis operator with operations from California to Washington, D.C. Its flagship retail and wholesale brand is Liberty Cannabis.
Rabbi James Kahn, the company’s director of community outreach, assured city planning officials the business wants to be a good neighbor.
“In 2021 America, owning a cannabis business is not a right, it’s a privilege,” he said, noting the business will have to get its license regularly renewed and it’s going to have to answer to neighbors. “We all want to create facilities that we’re comfortable living next to, that we’re proud of showing our kids and telling our kids about, and that’s critical to us.”
Hours of operation for the lounge are expected to be noon to 8 p.m. daily with 45-minute reservations free for customers who can show a same-day receipt from the dispensary next door and $10 for those who do not have a receipt.
Maximum occupancy is 19 people, though initially the business plans to only allow up to two groups of four at a time.
City Council Member Lisa Disch, who serves on the Planning Commission, noted the company laid out its plans for the lounge in extensive detail, including odor-control measures and $655,000 in improvements to the property, plus projections of $150,000 in gross annual receipts the first year.
That jumped out at her as a big upfront investment that will take a while to recoup, she said.
The company’s primary goal with the lounge isn’t to make money but to expand offerings to the customers of its adjacent dispensary, Kahn said.
Despite some concerns that marijuana consumption lounges could lead to people driving while high, the city decided to allow them with the rules approved in 2019.
Passerini points out downtown streets are already lined with bars that serve alcohol and he hopes the city isn’t overly restrictive about marijuana lounges.
“I was having a conversation the other day with the folks at the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association and we’re considering starting a whole new campaign to deregulate cannabis like alcohol,” he said. “The original campaign for legalization was regulate cannabis like alcohol, but now that we’ve regulated it, we’ve gone way too far. It’s starting to be regulated like it’s enriched uranium, as opposed to, you know, one of the least-toxic substances known to man.”
A history of Hash Bash and marijuana activism in Ann Arbor
Passerini said he had dreams of having a consumption lounge in his building at one point, but that’s been the furthest thing from his mind during the pandemic.
While there will be some coming, they’re not going to be like Amsterdam-style cafes, he said.
“One of the biggest issues is that the way it’s set up right now, you can’t serve food or drinks, and that would not be Amsterdam-style,” he said. “Amsterdam has had bakeries and obviously coffee and, you know, a very different model than what we’re going to see.”
Given the restrictions on selling products inside a consumption lounge, there have been questions about whether they’re even financially viable and the expectation is they won’t widely proliferate across the community, said City Council Member Erica Briggs, D-5th Ward, who was on Planning Commission when the city hashed out the regulations.
There hasn’t been much discussion about them since, Briggs said, adding the city is just trying to facilitate what state voters approved when they legalized recreational marijuana.
“We’ll just have to monitor it as we go and see how it works,” she said of consumption lounges. “We’ll just have to see how it integrates into the community.”
Brett Lenart, the city’s planning manager, said shortly before the regulations were OK’d in 2019 he would be surprised if the city got close to the 28-permit cap for consumption lounges and he expected they would end up co-located with dispensaries.
MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:
Ann Arbor to put $476K in new marijuana revenue to social equity programs
Ann Arbor adopts 9 ‘behavioral norms’ for council members to follow
Huron River watershed group applauds judge’s ruling in Gelman plume case
Ann Arbor OKs exceptions for Airbnb houses in hopes of avoiding lawsuit fight
Ann Arbor officials take first step to protect restaurants from ‘exorbitant fees’
"consumption" - Google News
May 09, 2021 at 07:32PM
https://ift.tt/3f3jK2d
New marijuana consumption lounge could be first of up to 28 in Ann Arbor - MLive.com
"consumption" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WkKCBC
https://ift.tt/2YCP29R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "New marijuana consumption lounge could be first of up to 28 in Ann Arbor - MLive.com"
Post a Comment