Cannabis businesses will have an easier time finding a location to open in Detroit after the city council narrowly approved an amendment to its recreational marijuana ordinance on Tuesday that reduces the space needed between weed establishments and certain other businesses.
The council voted 6 to 3 to reduce the distance requirement between cannabis businesses and “controlled uses,” such as liquor stores, from 1,000 feet to 750 feet. The amendment also allows cannabis businesses to operate within 500 feet of each other, down from 1,000 feet.
Since the changes required amendments to the ordinance, the council needed six votes to pass it.
Council President Mary Sheffield, President Pro Tem James Tate, and members Fred Durhal III, Gabriela Santiago-Romero, Mary Waters, and Coleman Young II voted in favor of the amendments. Council members Scott Benson, Angela Whitfield Calloway, Latisha Johnson, and Scott Benson voted against them.
Tate, who proposed the amendments, and other city officials said the previous space requirements made it difficult for Detroit entrepreneurs to open a marijuana business because of the city’s abundance of liquor stores. By reducing the space requirements, Tate said residents can “take advantage of the stores and businesses within Detroit as opposed to going across the border and providing funds to another municipality.”
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