Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jul 2010
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailytribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579
Author: Catherine Kavanaugh

LANDLORD ASKS CITY FOR RELIEF FROM MEDICAL POT BAN

Growing Operation Proposed for Industrial District.

ROYAL OAK -- A landlord unable to lease a building for two years is
looking to medical marijuana for economic relief.

James Canner, managing partner for AFKF, LLC, is asking the city to
make an exception to its 180-day moratorium on medical marijuana
facilities and consider a growing operation at 2521 Torquay, which is
an industrial zone across from Cummingston Park.

"The moratorium still is in place, but anyone who feels unfairly
impacted by it can ask for a hearing," City Attorney David Gillam
said. "This person is at risk of property foreclosure and he has a
prospective tenant who wants to use it for a grow room for registered
caregivers."

The City Commission set a formal hearing on the request for exemption
from the moratorium for Aug. 9.

Canner said Wednesday that he never expected to be at the center of a
growing controversy for medical marijuana. He has been called "the pot
guy," which he said is a misnomer.

"I'm only the landlord. I'm not in the business," Canner said. "Like
other people out there with buildings, I'm looking for tenants. A guy
wants to do this and I'm going through the steps to do it properly.
I'm caught in the crosshairs."

Canner also said he questions whether, if approved, the facility would
be the largest medical marijuana warehouse of its kind in Michigan.
Although his building is 23,000 square feet, he said the tenant is
interested in using half of it.

The potential tenant, David Greene, wants to operate a professional
grow room facility for licensed caregivers. The gray concrete building
would be divided and the caregivers would have their own locked
spaces. No medical marijuana would be dispensed from the site and it
would have 24-hour security. Only caregivers, who are allowed to grow
for qualified patients, would come and go.

Canner said he built the structure for a commercial tenant who went
out of business and he has been unable to find another renter in a
down economy with hundreds of other spaces available for lease.

"I am currently under tremendous pressure to find a use for this
building before the bank takes it back from me," Canner said in a
letter to the city requesting the hearing.

He also suggests Royal Oak consider cashing in on the emerging medical
marijuana industry by charging an application fee for each caregiver
and an annual license fee and tax the service. The new source of city
revenue could save some police and firefighter jobs, Canner said.

Like many cities, Royal Oak enacted a temporary ban on medical
marijuana facilities to study where to allow them and how to regulate
them. The moratorium expires in October, but has a provision that
allows hearings in cases where deferring review and approval of a plan
results in "denial of any viable economic use of property."

The hearing for 2521 Torquay will be at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at Royal Oak
City Hall, 211 E. Williams St. 
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