ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Permits were approved for three Royal Oak marijuana businesses after residents packed a five-hour City Commission meeting in protest.
Residents in Royal Oak went to the meeting, which ended just before midnight, to try to stop these new marijuana businesses from setting up shop in their communities.
The concern for residents is the location of the proposed businesses and their proximity to what’s already in those spots. Of the three different businesses on the agenda, residents were against two.
“I live in the neighborhood, and I’m just against a high-traffic retail operation, whether it was marijuana or McDonald’s, I don’t care,” one resident said. “It doesn’t belong in our neighborhood.”
A line of people gave their thoughts to the members of the Royal Oak City Commission on Monday night (April 25). The majority live near a proposed upscale retail pot operation on Harrison Street -- a location that’s surrounded by expensive condos.
“There’s real residents that live here,” one man said. “There’s real residents that are going to be very severely impacted by this location.”
“The dispensary is not a good fit for a residential area,” one woman said.
The second operation is proposed for an industrial area -- 88 feet away from a vocational high school that was grandfathered into the zoning for that area.
“If this was to be located 88 feet from Royal Oak High School, you would think very differently about it than you do about this,” a resident said. “Most respectfully, I think you should treat these students and this school the same way that you would treat a middle school or high school that’s part of the traditional curriculum, if you will.”
The third business is slated for a spot on Woodward Avenue. It didn’t receive any negative reaction from residents.
It appears to be only a matter of time until these businesses are built. The City Commission was the last barrier standing in the way of the plans moving forward.