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Traverse City Issues 16 Licenses for Retail Marijuana

Recreational, Adult-Use now allowed in city limits

Traverse City has signed on the dotted line, issuing recreational marijuana licenses to 16 businesses.

The news comes after more than a year of work outlining the rules, writing the city ordinance, and reviewing permit applications. City-wide, the maximum number of licenses allowed is 24.

All 16 applications were granted a license. That includes a dozen already-established medical marijuana dispensaries.

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The law passed by Michigan voters in November 2018 allows anyone age 21 or older to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. And they’ll be able to buy it at Traverse City dispensaries soon.

“We could see cannabis, adult-use cannabis businesses opening their doors here very, very soon. And I think a lot of people are ready for that to happen, and it’s about to.” Traverse City Clerk Benjamin Marentette says years of effort have come down to the city’s final step. “We’re just really excited that we’re able to welcome this industry into the city.”

He says it was an exhaustive process that required each applicant to submit hundreds of pages of documentation. “It’s an impressive amount of effort. This is a business that is probably, an industry I should say that might be the most heavily regulated industry that I’m aware of in the state. So they have to submit a lot of documentation, more than most.”

Sixteen businesses are getting their licenses, although not all of them are ready. That’s because five of them don’t have a storefront with doors ready to open to the public.

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Marentette says, “11 of the 16 businesses will be in a position to immediately be able to submit their application for final approval to the state, because those businesses are fully built out. The other five have some construction to do so it might be a little while.”

Ciara Shepard is the General Manager at the Nirvana Center. “It’s been just a waiting game,” she says. “We’ve known it was coming for the past couple of weeks here, so it’s definitely been a build up to this point.”

She adds, “it feels like all of our hard work has finally gotten to this point and we’re finally here.”

The existing medical marijuana dispensaries were all approved for recreational sales, and Shepard says customers have been waiting patiently. “We (still) get calls daily, we get people coming in daily, so we’re very excited.”

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The city license is the last major hurdle for these businesses, but not the final step.

Shepard says, “the state will come through and just double check that everything is running the way it should be. And then at that point we can start moving products over to the adult-use side and receiving adult use products. Because those two things are kept separate. So it shouldn’t be too long of a process at this point.”

The city allowed for 24 businesses, meaning eight spots are unclaimed. But the city has closed the application process for now.

Marentette says, “we’re not sure if or when we’re going to open that application window again. It is not a rolling process. It’s a decision that can be made. And I think we’re going to just let the dust settle for a while before we revisit that.”

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Permits are good through June 30, 2024, so businesses will have to come back to the table next year, and every two years for renewals.

“Then we go through the renewal process. That should be much, much, much simpler,” Marentette says. Businesses will file for renewal 90 days before the deadline.

The licenses were issued after an extensive review by the city clerk’s office and the Traverse City Police Department.

City Clerk Benjamin Marentette said, “the City of Traverse City appreciates the level of interest by the cannabis industry in locating their businesses within our community. The application review process was a big lift and required an extraordinary amount of review from my team and the Traverse City Police Department. We also appreciate the patience of the applicants and most certainly their investment in this community.

“While many people made up the team that brought us to this point where we’re in a position to issue these licenses, I want to especially thank Deputy City Clerk Sarah Lutz and Detective Tim Smith from the Traverse City Police Department for doing much of the heavy lifting and doing so with care.”

Several days ago, Lighthouse general manager Jon Handzlik told 9&10 News, “Pretty much dot the i’s, cross the t’s and then find recreational product. We’re getting there. We’re super close.”

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