GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Entrepreneurs interested in opening recreational marijuana businesses in Grand Rapids will have to wait six more months.

The city commission agreed Tuesday, March 17 to delay the acceptance of license applications until Oct. 20, 2020. It was a 5-2 vote with commissioners Jon O’Connor and Nathaniel Moody in opposition.

Prior to Tuesday’s vote, the city would have begun accepting applications on April 20. But officials said they needed more time to evaluate the system the city put in place to allow medical marijuana businesses and to prepare for the expansion of the industry to include recreational businesses.

“What came from our last commission meeting is there’s a lot of discussion and ideas that still need to be vetted before we move forward and we really need more time as a body to do that,” said Mayor Rosalynn Bliss.

She also noted that the city’s top priority at the moment is responding to the “crisis of the coronavirus," which furthers the need for the delay.

Tuesday’s vote amended the city’s recreational marijuana ordinance by delaying the first date to accept licensing applications to Oct. 20.

During the next seven months, the city commission intends to have further discussions about changes that need to be made to improve the ordinance. They also have recommendations from the planning commission to consider, including whether or not to keep religious facilities as sensitive uses requiring a waiver to locate a marijuana business within 1,000 feet of them.

City Manager Mark Washington has also established a work group to come up with recommendations for ordinances, policies and processes related to marijuana.

On Tuesday, O’Connor said the commission agreed to a process and timeline that businesses used to make their financial commitments and decisions, and to put further burden on individuals trying to make an investment in Grand Rapids is wrong.

“In the eleventh hour it feels like we’re Lucy pulling the football out from Charlie Brown right now moving the goal posts," he said.

Tuesday’s amendment does not affect medical marijuana business applications, including those that are pending and awaiting approval by the planning commission, except for if they intend to expand to recreational marijuana.

“For those medical marijuana facilities that already have their application in and have approval, or are in the pipeline to do that, if they intended to move swiftly and move forward with converting to recreational at the end of April, they will need to wait until we have the license ordinance in place in October, as well as the recreational land use in place,” Bliss said.

Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana in November 2018. Shortly after, Bliss said Grand Rapids would not opt out of the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act and thus would eventually allow recreational marijuana businesses, citing local election results.

The city has approved 24 applications for medical marijuana business licenses, and there are about a dozen more pending.

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