Warren Sued Again Over Medical Marijuana

[bobandtorey]

Warren officials violated Michigan’s medical marijuana law by arbitrarily blocking efforts by two companies to cultivate pot for medicinal use, new lawsuits filed against the city allege.

 

 

The firms, Macomb Supreme Industrial, LLC and also JJN, LLC, seek court orders forcing the Warren Zoning Board of Appeals to overturn a zoning inspector’s decision to not issue a certificate of compliance with the local zoning ordinance.

 

 

JJN hoped to grow marijuana at three neighboring addresses on Schoenherr Road, north of Eight Mile Road. Macomb Supreme Industrial wants to cultivate pot in the 14000 block of Achyl, near 10 Mile Road and Groesbeck Highway, for medicinal use. Both are in areas zoned for light industry.

 

 

According to three consolidated lawsuits filed by JJN and one by Macomb Supreme Industrial, zoning inspector Everett Murphy last year rejected the applications for certificates of compliance for the vacant warehouses. Murphy has publicly denied allegations he failed to “process” the documents and said he nixed both because medical marijuana is not specifically listed as a permitted use in the city’s zoning ordinance.

 

 

Both firms appealed to the zoning board in November. After some ZBA members suggested alternative ways for company representatives to allow growing, the board voted unanimously to affirm Murphy’s decisions involving all four properties.

 

 

The ZBA’s decision violated the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act and the constitutional right to due process, the lawsuits state.

 

 

“Appellee’s denial of (each company’s) application was arbitrary, capricious, and/or clearly an abuse or unwanted exercise of discretion for the reason that the denial was based on a proposed use which is lawful, is protected conduct under the laws of the State of Michigan, and a municipality cannot ban such conduct,” the lawsuit states. “Further, the denial was based on the state of mind of the administrator at the time he denied ... application.”

 

 

At a public hearing by the ZBA on Nov. 18 -- one month before the lawsuits were filed -- Murphy and zoning board members defended his actions. He denied allegations that he refused to even review the applications. Officials also asserted the requests were nixed because Warren’s zoning ordinance does not specifically list “medical marijuana” as a permitted use of property.

 

 

Denise Pollicella, an attorney for the two firms, claims city officials can’t block use of property allowed by state law just because the activity or type of operation isn’t mentioned among the uses mentioned in Warren’s zoning ordinance.

 

 

Pollicella doubts Warren officials would have rejected her client’s applications if they involved a less controversial yet legal use.

 

 

“Either a shoe lace factory or a gifted school for the blind -– we wouldn’t be having this discussion. If they listed every occupation and business, (the ordinance) would be thousands of pages long,” Pollicella said Thursday.

 

 

“Put in a candy store or coffee shop –- those things aren’t listed in the zoning code, either. Medical marijuana caregivers and patients are allowed to be caregivers and patients anywhere they want.”

 

 

She claims her clients also were told their applications for certificates of occupancy would not be reviewed because Warren officials are developing regulations of medical marijuana.

 

 

At the ZBA’s public hearing on the companies’ appeal of the city administration’s rejections, some officials suggested to Pollicella she seek a land-use variance. She agreed but wasn’t surprised when it was subsequently rejected because it’s not listed in the ordinance.

 

 

“I did it to placate everybody,” she said.

 

 

Pollicella acknowledged she told Warren officials she didn’t prefer to file a lawsuit but explained she was compelled to head to court in order to protect her clients’ rights to appeal the zoning board’s unanimous vote in November that upheld Murphy’s decision.

 

 

Both legal challenges come as the Warren City Council may act soon on a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance featuring regulations of medical marijuana. The proposed rules, spearheaded by Mayor James Fouts, were drafted by the city attorney’s office.

 

 

Fouts has been outspoken about the need for regulations of medical marijuana, claiming it doesn’t belong in, or next to, residential neighborhoods and has turned into big business.

 

 

Council members held a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance amendments last fall and approved a first “reading.” A second, final reading has not been scheduled, as the council awaits potential tweaks to it.

 

 

Pollicella, managing partner of Cannabis Attorneys of Michigan, criticized the proposed requirement that any medical marijuana facility be at least 500 feet from a residential zone. That restriction would make placement of medical pot growth and dispensing virtually prohibitive, she said.

 

 

Warren and Wayne County’s Pittsfield Township are the only municipalities sued because of legal disputes relating to medical marijuana. She said Livonia and Troy have allowed cultivation of marijuana in areas zoned for industrial use because officials in those cities have deemed it a manufacturing process.

 

 

The lawsuits by JJN LLC and Macomb Supreme Industrial LLC –- assigned to Circuit Judges Richard Caretti and Edward Servitto, respectively –- are the latest legal challenges Warren faces regarding medical marijuana. Last September, nearly two dozen medical marijuana providers and/or patients –- some of them cancer patients -- sued the city in Macomb Circuit Court.

 

 

Among the 23 individuals, 13 reside in Warren, two live in Roseville, one is from Sterling Heights, one from Chesterfield Township and three apiece reside in Shelby Township and Clinton Township. Their lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs were ticketed on multiple occasions for zoning violations contrary to state law.

 

 

They are represented by attorney Michael Greiner, who owns the office building on Hoover Road, north of 12 Mile Road, where Warren police executed search warrants last summer. Greiner is a former deputy mayor of Warren, having served in the city administration of Fouts’ predecessor, Mark Steenbergh.

 

 

Fouts and Acting City Attorney Mary Michaels did not return messages seeking comment for this report.

 

http://www.macombdaily.com/article/MD/20160122/NEWS/160129888

[bobandtorey]

sorry 

[beourbud]

Abrogate is the solution.

 

Anything else is legal lies.

 

Petitions are headed that way now!