The doors are now open to recreational marijuana in the city of Traverse City. Traverse City is starting the process, and applications are now available for those interested in opening a recreational marijuana retail business.
Applications are now open for recreational – or “adult-use” cannabis retail stores within city limits. The city clerk says the application process is an extensive one, and could take some time to complete. Benjamin Marentette says, “We’re giving people almost two months, approximately two months to put their applications together. There is an extensive volume of information they have to submit.”
So, you can start filling out an application now – but the city won’t even be accepting completed applications until August. Marentette says the city won’t start accepting the applications until August 22, and for one-week only.
The city will ultimately grant up to 24 permits for new recreational businesses – that’s twice the current number of 12 businesses that are selling medical marijuana in the city right now. “My guess would be that the existing medical facilities in the city will submit an application. And then some. There will be others of course that aren’t currently in the medical business in Traverse City that will submit for adult use.”
Once applications are accepted in August, Marentette says the city will have to review them to make sure they comply with state and local laws. “If we get more applications than there are licenses available, then we have to go through an extensive scoring process where all of the applications have to be rated.” And the clerk says that will take some time. “We’re probably looking at a year from now, June of 2023 when we’d be in a position to award these licenses.”
But there’s also the chance the city won’t get more than 24 license applications. “If we don’t get more applications than licenses available, there’s still lots of vetting and verifying. There’s literally hundreds of pages of documentation that has to be reviewed to insure compliance with state and local laws. We’d probably be looking at somewhere around spring of 2023 to issue licenses,” he says.
Licenses are available across the city. There are sub-areas, or “micro-zoning districts” with a different maximum number of licenses available in each micro-zoning district. But Marentette says only one application is allowed per applicant – and only one location. That means applicants are not allowed to apply for multiple locations.
“While it takes a long time for us to issue licenses we want to let the industry to know that they are welcome here and we’re going to work to get them licensed as quickly as possible but we also have a responsibility to make sure they’re complying with all the rules that are there.”
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