City of Battle Creek Set To Approve First Medical Marijuana Business

Over a year after the state of Michigan set in place regulations to allow medical marijuana businesses to operate, the City of Battle Creek looks set to approve their first provisioning center.

The agenda for the City Commission's meeting on Tuesday will see the introduction of an ordinance that would rezone the property at 293 E. Columbia Ave, formerly Spherion, in order to allow a provisioning center to open up.

The property is currently zoned for O1 Office use, and medical marijuana provisioning batcenters are only allowed in C-2 through C-7 zoning districts. This ordinance, if passed, would allow the provisioning center to operate. Since there are no schools, libraries, or other medical marijuana provisioning centers within 100 feet of the property, and the use of the property for this purpose isn't expected to bring any extra strain on utilities or traffic, the planning staff recommended that the Planning Commission recommend this ordinance's approval.

Battle Creek began allowing medical marijuana businesses back in February of 2018, but this would be the first provisioning center to open up since. This facility as requested in this potential ordinance would not sell marijuana for recreational use, and could only sell to those with a valid state caregiver or patient license.