City Issues 16 Adult Use Retail Cannabis Licenses

March 9, 2023

City of Traverse City Issues Adult Use Retail Cannabis Licenses
Application Review Completed

The City Clerk’s Office has completed the process to review the adult use retail cannabis applicants and has issued all 16 licenses on March 9, 2023. The application process was extensive and robust, and required a tremendous amount of documentation which was vetted by a number of City departments, with a substantial review conducted by the City Clerk’s Office and investigations conducted by the Traverse City Police Department.

City Clerk Benjamin Marentette indicated, “The City of Traverse City appreciates the level of interest by the cannabis industry in locating their businesses within our community. The application review process was a big lift and required an extraordinary amount of review from my team and the Traverse City Police Department. We also appreciate the patience of the applicants and most certainly their investment in this community” Marentette continued, “While many people made up the team that brought us to this point where we’re in a position to issue these licenses, I want to especially thank Deputy City Clerk Sarah Lutz and Detective Tim Smith from the Traverse City Police Department for doing much of the heavy lifting and doing so with care.”

At its May 16, 2022, meeting the City Commission approved the adult use cannabis licensing ordinance, related zoning ordinance and scoring rubric. The City Clerk’s Office made applications for Adult Use Cannabis Retail Licenses available Monday, June 13, 2022, and began accepting applications August 22, 2022, at 8 a.m. through August 26, 2022, at 5 p.m. The zoning ordinance included an overlay district of subareas throughout the city, which prescribed a maximum number of licenses in each subarea. City-wide, the maximum number of licenses allowed is
24; recognizing that in no instance may more licenses be issued for a subarea than allowed within a given subarea.

Applications were submitted from all 12 addresses currently licensed as a medical cannabis provisioning center and four others. All 16 applications received fell within the number of licenses allowed per subarea. Of the 16, 11 of locations would be in a position to immediately submit their final application to the state because they are fully built-out. The state then has 90 days to make a licensing determination, meaning up to 11 could be operational relatively soon. The other 5 have construction to complete before they can submit their application and then the state will have 90 days to make a licensing determination.

The following table illustrates the proposed locations, which subarea the location would fall within and if there is an existing medical cannabis provisioning (retail) center license at the proposed location: