Royal Oak Township voters will become the first to decide whether they want to buck their elected officials and allow marijuana businesses into their town.

The township board voted unanimously last year to prohibit marijuana businesses in the community, even though the township’s voters passed the statewide marijuana legalization proposal 61-39%.

But under the November ballot proposal that legalized marijuana for adult recreational use, citizens can gather petition signatures to reverse their elected officials by gathering 5% of the number of votes cast for governor in the 2018 election.

For Royal Oak Township, that translated into just 5% of the 1,102 votes for governor in 2018 — with most going to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer — or 55 signatures of registered voters to qualify a marijuana business question for the May 7 ballot.

Organizers of the marijuana question turned in fewer than 100 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Among the organizers is former state Sen. Virgil Smith, a Detroit Democrat who gave up his seat in the Senate in 2016 after pleading guilty to shooting up his ex-wife’s Mercedes. Smith, who runs a lobbying firm and has clients interested in the pot business, cited the economic benefits to the community.

More:Why more than 400 Michigan communities are saying no to recreational pot businesses

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Township Board member Jollie Dixon, said the board just didn’t want marijuana businesses in the community.

“I really don’t want it. And a lot of the citizens tell me that they really don’t want it, especially people who live behind the dealership,” he said, referring to an old Mel Farr auto dealership on 8 Mile that would be one of two or three of parcels of land that would qualify for the legal marijuana businesses.

But as hundreds of communities across the state vote to ban marijuana businesses, the citizen-led initiatives may pick up steam, especially in towns where the legal weed proposal passed by wide margins.

During the Aug. 6 primary election, the village of Vanderbilt in northern Michigan also will consider overturning village officials, who voted in January to prohibit marijuana businesses from the town where voters approved marijuana legalization 57-43%.

In Vanderbilt, only 195 voters cast ballots for governor, so supporters only had to turn in signatures from 10 registered voters to qualify for the ballot. The proposal would allow for 20 marijuana business licenses across all six categories: grower, processor, testing facility, transporter, retail shops and micro businesses.

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With more than 400 communities opting out of the legal weed businesses, language allowing voters to overturn the decisions was necessary in last November's ballot proposal, supporters of the proposal said.

That language stated: “Individuals may petition to initiate an ordinance to provide for the number of marihuana establishments allowed within a municipality or to completely prohibit marihuana establishments within a municipality, and such ordinance shall be submitted to the electors of the municipality at the next regular election when a petition is signed by qualified electors in the municipality in a number greater than 5% of the votes cast for governor by qualified electors in the municipality at the last gubernatorial election.”

“We know the city administrations tend to be much more conservative than the population as a whole,” said Matthew Abel, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, one of the groups behind the marijuana legalization proposal. “It was a remedy for all these places opting out and not giving people any choices.”

Josh Hovey, spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which spearheaded the campaign, said depending on the outcome of the Royal Oak Township and Vanderbilt votes, communities might want to start rethinking the business bans and pass their own marijuana ordinances, rather than be stuck with less restrictive initiatives pushed by a small group of citizens.

“Officials really need to do a couple things. One, look at the results of the polls on Election Day and if their community voted in favor of the proposal last year, they have to grapple with the question of whether they're going to opt in and allow businesses to operate like their voters supported,” he said. “Or, are they going to leave it up to a potential local ballot initiative that might be far more lenient than what local community leaders would have otherwise done.”

But if you live in the tiny township of Royal Oak, which is about a half-mile square along the Oakland County side of 8 Mile Road, you’d barely know that the fate of legal weed in the community is in your hands.

While the township’s website offers a little information about an upcoming millage renewal vote on May 7 — 4.5 mills for general operations through 2023 — there is nary a word about the marijuana proposal.

For that, you’d need to go to Oakland County’s website or the state’s website to find out that voters will consider: “A proposed initiative ordinance to amend Article 8 of the Royal Oak Township ordinances to allow marihuana related businesses in Royal Oak Township. This proposal would authorize an unlimited number of marihuana related businesses to locate on parcels of property within Royal Oak township that are larger than five acres and that have been continuously unoccupied for at least five years.”

The very specific language in the proposal is meant to benefit the owners of the few unoccupied, 5-acre parcels of land in the community. There are only two or three parcels that would qualify, Smith said.

“I’m quarterbacking everything that’s going on in the township,” said Smith, who has registered as a lobbyist with the state and has started a political consulting firm — VKS Consulting. “The way the language is written, there’s probably only two or three parcels that fit that description.”

One of the parcels is the old Mel Farr Auto Dealership where Smith’s clients — he won’t name them — want to develop a “true marijuana campus” with marijuana growing, processing and dispensary facilities.

The township doesn’t want to talk about the proposal. Neither Supervisor Donna Squalls nor Clerk Gwendolyn Turner returned phone calls or e-mails about the proposal. Turner, in an email to the Free Press, referred any questions to township attorney Michael Bosnic, who also didn’t return phone calls.

Even the supporters of the proposal are vague about the campaign. A billboard and lawn signs only talk about new jobs, revenue and development with a yes vote on Proposal 1. There is no mention of marijuana, unless the green contrast color of the campaign signs counts as a nod to pot.

But Smith says there is a door-to-door effort going on to explain the benefits of the proposal, including the revenues that would flow into township coffers if the proposal passes. The money would include the $5,000 application fee the township could charge each marijuana business applicant along with the revenues from the 10% excise tax on recreational marijuana.

“This is an economic engine for a township like Royal Oak. This township has a $1.6 million annual budget and we could come up with a quarter of their budget with this revenue,” he said. “And then, there is the increased property taxes.”

Dixon’s not convinced.

“It would be a good time to bring some facts to the no campaign,” he said. “We don’t know what kind of jobs there will be, especially for township residents. We don’t have a lot of scientists in Royal Oak Township.”

While medical marijuana for the 293,000 registered cardholders has been available for sale from licensed dispensaries since last fall, recreational marijuana for adults at least 21 years old won’t be commercially available for sale until the state develops the rules that will govern the recreational market. The state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has until Dec. 6 to develop those rules before they start awarding licenses for recreational marijuana businesses.

Kathleen Gray covers the marijuana industry for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.