Cannabis real estate developer Jeffrey Yatooma could soon have dominance of Auburn Hills’ marijuana market.
Yatooma’s impending dominance comes after a creative and successful ballot initiative that led to Auburn Hills voters approving weed businesses in the city in November 2022.
But the path for the city has not been straightforward. A month before the vote, City Council effectively blocked marijuana licensing, and Yatooma, with an amendment to zoning rules. And now the council is flipping again. The city’s economic development team is expected to recommend a new marijuana ordinance to council next month that would approve licenses for just four properties, three of which are owned by Yatooma.
Auburn Hills Mayor Kevin McDaniel and his economic development team declined to comment on the matter, and more than a dozen emails to members of the Auburn Hills City Council were not returned.
The events in Auburn Hills highlight the fractured world of marijuana licensure where the state allows unlimited licenses, leaving local communities with broad authority to develop their own purported competitive methods to dole them out. Expensive lawsuits against municipalities by motivated operators and their lawyers over those rules are common and, as is the case in Auburn Hills, the players in the marijuana space are more than willing to use all legal means to reduce competition and maximize profits.
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