By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Soon there may be five marijuana providers near each other on Blue Star Highway.
The Saugatuck Township Planning Commission Jan. 24 approved a special land use application from Be Positive, Best Buds to create a new dispensary on 4.86 now-vacant acres on the southwest corner of Blue Star and Just Barns Drive south of Overisel Lumber. (Proposed layout appears below.)
Applicants Pedro Mendoza Jr. and Maria Mendoza of Fennville will still need site plan approval to do the work there.
JARS Cannabis, with 10 Michigan locations and four more in Arizona, is transforming the former Amble Inn at 2970 Blue Star, just southeast of I-196 Exit 36, into another new facility.
Just across the Douglas city line are Aficiannado at 2918 Blue Star and locally-owned Green Koi at 435 Blue Star (highway street numbers change nearer downtown Douglas).
In July 2021 New Standard opened its seventh Michigan provisioning facility at 6406 Blue Star near I-196 Exit 41.
The highway stretch makes sense for a lot of reasons. State and local licensing standards favor placing dispensaries in commercial zones buffered from schools, churches and residential areas.
Two former operations — Good Intentions Paving Co. at 3219 Blue Star and Great Turtle Emporium at 3383 Blue Star — were also on highway in the township, albeit briefly circa 2011-12 after Michigan legalized medical marijuana legal but under the cloud of individual county prosecutors interpreting ambiguities in state standards.
After Michigan clarified standards and, in 2018, made recreational marijuana legal subject to local licensing regulations, the industry started booming. The City of Douglas and Saugatuck Township wasted little time opting in; the City of Saugatuck, citing different exigencies, did not.
Supply and demand isn’t rocket science. When supply rises to meet or even exceed demand, doing business becomes more challenging.
Provisioning centers continue — bad pun alert — flowering, but area’s only current grow operation — named 236 Culver LLC after its owners’ former Hercules Restaurant address in downtown Saugatuck but actually just off of Blue Star near Exit 36 — has encountered challenges in the wake of one partner dying,
The business originally agreed to a 5-year, $115,655 infrastructure payment plan,
but surviving partner John Seros has sought relief from the township claiming he cannot pay the full 2021 installment of $18,145.06 on time.
Operations coordinator Daniel DeFranco told the township board Feb. 9 he had spoken with Seros, who could not commit to a specific amount to be paid each month. “He did commit to making monthly payments such that the remainder of the 2021 installment be fully paid by June 30, 2022,” DeFranco said.
