Waterford Today

City of Berkley issued the following announcement on Feb. 22.

The Berkley City Council, took into account the recommendations of the appeals hearing officer, decided on the administrative appeals filed by 21 marihuana business license applicants appealing the City Manager’s scoring of their license applications, making the applicants’ scores now final.

The City Council’s decisions on the appeals resulted in the number one and two applicants ranked and a three-way tie for the third position. This decision is important because the City Code limits the number of licenses the City may issue (up to three marihuana business locations).

At the February 7, 2022, meeting, the Council considered its options and reviewed all potential options for addressing the three-way tie with the City administration and the City attorney. Council instructed staff to prepare an ordinance to update the number of allowable licenses to five from three. The first reading of the ordinance update will likely come before Council for consideration at their March 7th Regular meeting. 

Current steps in the process at this time include the City Manager referring the top two ranked applicants to the Berkley Planning Commission for site plan review**.

**Applicants that are tied at the third-highest scoring position, have been cautioned that proceeding to site plan review at this time will be at the applicant’s own risk and expense.

A Quick Synopsis

• City Manager Matt Baumgarten held a public meeting in July 2021 and scored the marihuana license applications that were submitted to the City between June 15 and June 29, 2020, based on the scoring criteria adopted by City Council.
• Per the City’s ordinance, the appeals process was conducted by the Council-appointed Hearing Officer where applicants had an opportunity to challenge their scores.
• Following the appeal hearings, the Hearing Officer submitted his recommendations for a decision to the City Council.
• City Council reviewed the recommendations of the appeals hearing officer filed by 21 appellants making the applicants’ scores now final.

Original source can be found here.