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Two extra marijuana businesses are coming to Berkley bringing the total to five
The five businesses that will likely be awarded marijuana licenses plan to set up shop in green zones along 11 Mile, 12 Mile and Woodward. They’re positioned to be at least a thousand feet away from schools.
BERKLEY, Mich. (FOX 2) - There’ll likely be more marijuana shops in Berkley than initially planned. City council voted to increase the number of marijuana licenses the city could issue, from three to five.
"I say hey man, bring it on," said Matt Marini, owner of Puck Hockey in Berkley.
We talked with people who work live and play in Berkley about the move – which is more than two years in the making. The city first adopted its marijuana zoning ordinance in December, 2019.
"I know we’re a small community, and what they call a bedroom community, but I think we have a lot of younger people moving in and I think are more open-minded also," said Terry Scholes, resident.
"It largely is trying to capture the voting public’s collective mentality on this," said City Manager Matt Baumgarten.
Baumgarten says more than 70 percent of Berkley voters approved of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana back in 2018.
And by his count, about 60 percent of residents are on board with ultimately having five marijuana businesses in Berkley.
FOX 2 asked him about the other 40.
"One of the biggest misconceptions we have is that people will be able to consume on-site: That they’ll walk right out of the building and start consuming," Baumgarten said.
He says that’s not happening in other cities with recreational pot shops, so there’s no reason to believe it’ll happen there.
"Berkley has always been a quiet quaint little town, always family-oriented," said resident Brenda Reeves."I mean I just hope it doesn’t bring back riff-raff."
The five businesses that will likely be awarded marijuana licenses plan to set up shop in green zones along 11 Mile, 12 Mile and Woodward. They’re positioned to be at least a thousand feet away from schools.
"There’s free business out here so if there’s room to get it in, then yeah, welcome to Berkley," said resident Alex Nicolai.
The proposed marijuana shops won’t be a big moneymaker for Berkley, Baumgarten says they’ll only provide a few more bucks in tax revenue.
"This is a little place we could use all the tax revenue we could get," said Terry Scholes, resident.
"I think over time people will start to see that this is not as detrimental as probably people 80 years ago thought alcohol was going to be," said Baumgarten. "And it’s going to be part of the woven fabric of our community two years from now."
The next step is to have those five businesses to go before the planning commission and to have their site plan approved. The city wants to have these businesses licensed by this summer.