Township planning commission refers draft marijuana ordinance, overlay map to county planning commission

Local Government Meetings

New Buffalo Times

Democracy Requires Transparency

CITY OF NEW BUFFALO JOHN HUMPHREY, MAYOR CITY COUNCIL MARK ROBERTSON, ROGER LIJESKI, JOHN HUMPHREY, BRIAN FLANAGAN, VANCE PRICE City Council meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6:30PM CITY OF NEW BUFFALO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS to be determined NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP BOARD PETE RAHM, MICHELLE HEIT, JUDY H. ZABICKI, PATTY IAZZETTO, JACK ROGERS Board meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7PM NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month at 6:30PM

NEW BUFFALO AREA SCHOOLS BOARD PAUL KELLER, LISA WERNER, HEATHER BLACK, DENISE CHURCHILL, BRADLEY BURNER, VANESSA THUN CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP BOARD DAVID BUNTE, PAULA DUDIAK, LIZ RETTIG, RICHARD SULLIVAN, BILL MARSKE Chikaming Board meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 6:30PM CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Wednesday of each month at 6:30PM THREE OAKS THREE OAKS TOWNSHIP BOARD Meets on the 2nd Monday of each month at 7PM VILLAGE OF THREE OAKS BOARD Meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7PM GRAND BEACH Meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7PM MARY ROBERTSON, CLERK DEBORAH LINDLEY, BLAKE O’HALLORAN, JAMES BRACEWELL, PETER DOERR, PAUL LEONARD, JR. MICHIANA VILLAGE OF MICHIANA COUNCIL Meets on the 2nd Friday of each month at 1PM

Township planning commission refers draft marijuana ordinance, overlay map to county planning commission

Members of the New Buffalo Township Planning Commission approved referring a draft marijuana ordinance and overlay map to the Berrien County Planning Commission for review at their Tuesday, Jan. 3, meeting.

County planners have 30 days to review it before handing it over to the New Buffalo Township Board, which will then make a final decision on it.

There were a few clarifications made to the ordinance, Traci Lauricella, chair of the planning commission, said.

The C-1 district was added to the first item under Section A, which now reads that “provisioning centers/retailers and microbusinesses are permitted as special land uses in the portions of the C-1 and Industrial Districts located on each side of US 12 from the City of New Buffalo city limit to the state line.”

The draft ordinance also states that “grow, processors, and secure transporters are also permitted as special land uses in the Industrial Districts located on each side of US 12 from the City of New Buffalo city limit to the state line.”

Regarding the U.S. 12 corridor (indicated as Area One on the draft map), Lauricella said that, from the joint meetings, several people thought that from the building formerly known as Plastic Masters to the state line was what was being included in the overlay, while others thought that the former Plastic Masters building and then

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA beginning at Grand Avenue and heading to the state line was the area that was being included in the overlay.

“It was my understanding the U.S. 12 corridor all the way from that building to the state line, as long as it was in C-1 and met the other conditions, would be included in the overlay,” she said.

In looking at an aerial of what this could increase the possible properties to, Lauricella said it’s “not a huge number because we have talked about including a 150-foot buffer from nearest corner to nearest corner of any residential property and a lot of the properties along the corridor that aren’t buffered by the natural buffer - being the highway and/or railroad tracks - are going to be mitigated through just their proximity to a residence, their proximity to R-2 and so they wouldn’t be qualifying properties to begin with.”

“From our loose measuring through the GIS system and figuring out from the city border to Grand Avenue, it really only opens up three-ish properties” that are currently not abandoned,” Lauricella said.

Also added to the draft ordinance under Section 11 is that provisioning centers or retailers “may not be located within 150 feet of an existing one-family or multiple-family dwelling unless the owner of the dwelling completes an application for a waiver as part of the special land use process and records the waiver with the Berrien County Register of Deeds.”

During public comment, Bob Trainor, who was representing property at 18300 U.S. Highway 12, said that the property is in an area that’s zoned industrial and that having a dispensary there would bring it back to life and help “create great paying jobs.” He said that they’ve been “great neighbors” in the years that they’ve owned it and that they have a “great business plan and we want to be considered” for a potential establishment.

Casey Kornoelje, who owns a retail facility in Grand Rapids, said that last fiscal year, $56,000 was disbursed per retailer or microbusiness that’s located in a jurisdiction.

He said he understood U.S. 12 from the Indiana border up to the city limits is primarily industrial and the township might want to consider “to open that up a little bit more because the ultimate recipient and benefactor of that would be the township and the contractors that are here, local architects that are here and folks would benefit from that.”

Ryan Bryk said that he’s had people come into his shop and say they haven’t seen anything for agricultural residential, such as for farmers and people with pole barns, “who want to get into the industry,” and people are wondering why it wasn’t zoned or “can it be or will that have to be something special.” He said he’d be willing to collect signatures from people with regards to the matter.