Getting a local marijuana license in Michigan is supposed to be a competitive process. Municipalities are required under state law to make the selections based on a competitive process that typically takes the form of a scoring system — often revolving around an applicant’s ability to invest in curb appeal or sustainable operations.
But in Harper Woods, the process devolved into a show of athletic prowess, much like issues are settled on the playground. With a footrace.
The outcome of that mad dash has created controversy as applicants who lost prepare potential lawsuits while the municipality moves forward with reviewing the race winners’ documents at a Feb. 28 planning commission meeting. Licenses could be issued soon thereafter.
The wild scene in Harper Woods is emblematic of a cannabis licensing regime where each municipality can create its own rules to allow some or many cannabis businesses. Now, several years into legalization, fewer and fewer towns are opening up to legal weed, and that has amped up competition when licenses do become available.
Whether the footrace abides by state rules that forbid “arbitrary” licensing processes is up for debate. A city hall employee who did not give her name told Crain’s by phone that the city did not host a sanctioned footrace to determine whose planning documents would be reviewed and that the process was simply a first-to-file system.
But to those that participated, those who sprinted from the parking lot to the back door of Harper Woods City Hall that day, it was only the fastest that are being rewarded.
Emails sent to the mayor, every City Council member, the city manager and both economic development officials were not returned. Attempts to reach the mayor, city manager and economic development office by phone were not successful.
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