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MARLETTE — In a 4-2 vote last week, city council directed Marlette City Manager Ryan Rudzis to work with the city attorney on drafting ordinances that would allow for one marijuana grow operation and one adult-use marijuana retail facility in the city.
The following motion was passed on Monday, March 3, to: “Instruct the city manager to work with the city attorney to create, number one: a proposed regulatory ordinance that would allow for one Class C marijuana grow operation, and one adult-use marijuana retail within the city. Number two: a proposed zoning ordinance that regulates where marijuana facilities are permitted to operate within the city. Once drafts/proposed ordinances are completed, the city manager shall present the same to city council for further review and consideration.”
Councilman Don Redman made the motion with support from Councilman Chris Kopacz. Also voting in favor were council members Jason Bell and Dan Edwards. Voting against were councilmen Shane Hunter and Pat Edwards.
Marlette Mayor Charles Bush, who was the tie breaking vote last year in a 4-3 decision to deny the adoption of a zoning ordinance for adult-use recreational dispensaries, did not cast a vote, as there was a majority.
“This is just the beginning of getting an ordinance,” said Redman following the vote. He spoke to a crowd of around 100 people, many of whom had given their opinion during more than an hour of heated public comment.
About 36 people stood to speak, some residents, some business owners, some church leaders, and many non-city residents from surrounding areas.
Those who expressed support cited the growth of business and revenue for the city, the strict state regulations for licensed marijuana establishments, and the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
Those against expressed concern over what they believed could be a potential harm to community youth, crime rates, and odor control of a grow facility.
Redman clarified the exact steps that will be taken, following the drafting of ordinances to approve a potential grow and adult-use retail.
“What happens (next),” Redman said, “(is) the attorney makes up an ordinance, it comes back to council for review and any changes to the ordinance will be made then. At that point, the city manager will schedule a first reading of this ordinance and this will be a public hearing at that point, providing at least 15 days’ notice in the newspaper.”
Redman continued: “Once a public hearing is scheduled the city council will meet on an assigned day and time for the first reading and receive public comment. After the first reading is completed, a second reading will need to be scheduled. This is not a public hearing, and a notice in the newspaper does not need to be given. At the second reading the council will formally vote (on) the ordinance. If the ordinance is adopted, the city manager will run (that information) in the newspaper, and a record of the ordinance will appear 25 days after the adoption.”
If the ordinances are passed, interested parties must still apply to council for a fee of $5,000 per application. Council can then approve or deny based on the applicant’s compliance with the ordinances.
If ordinances are passed, the city does have interested applicants in business partners Salam Hani and Nick Saffo, who have spent two years and nearly two million dollars renovating their property at 6300 Karen Street for a grow site.
The pair began renovating the site for air and water filtration and odor control with plans to grow as medical caregivers.
This is legal in Michigan, and does not require municipal approval.
Because recreational is the more profitable business, and the only way the city receives any revenue, Saffo and Hani are hoping to partner with Marlette, should the city opt-in and allow adult-use marijuana ordinances.
Saffo and Hani, along with their attorney, were present at the March 3 meeting to address questions and concerns from council and attendees.
The pair’s legal counsel, Salam Elia of Elia Law in Birmingham, told council her clients are primarily concerned with the grow site, and opting in could help fill a financial bucket for the city.
There is a bucket that’s empty, she said, in the scenario where her clients grow medicinal marijuana as caregivers, and the city sees no revenue.
There is another bucket that could be full, should the city decide to allow a recreational grow facility at the 6300 Karen Street property.
“This can alleviate some of the financial strains (on the city) if it’s done properly,” Elia said. “That’s the purpose (of us being here), to have an open discussion, provide information, and answer questions that you guys have…(growing) is going to happen, and it can happen on different terms, and it may be better terms (for the city) and that’s why we’re here.”
According to Michigan law, a Class C grower can grow up to a maximum of 2,000 marijuana plants. Class C licensees can also “stack” an additional five Class C licenses, allowing a maximum of up to 10,000 plants.
There is a $5,000 application fee per license, and a $5,000 renewal fee annually to the municipality. Should they “stack” the licenses for the grow facility, that could mean a potential of $30,000 annually to the city coffers.
Hani and Saffo have also considered opening an adult-use retail front at the building they own at 2941 Main Street (formerly Family Dollar), but no plans have been solidified for an operation.
Adult-use retail, however, could provide the highest amount of revenue to the city. Each year the state of Michigan allocates an equal distribution of the 10 percent excise tax collected on adult-use cannabis products to each municipality with an adult-use retail license.
For 2024 that amount was $58,228 per license.
Some at the meeting, however, expressed concerns over increased crime and protection of the community youth should marijuana establishments be allowed in Marlette. Others touted the need for increased business, and expressed that alcohol is also a dangerous substance in the community.
Jim Marshall, superintendent of Marlette Community Schools, said he has seen “a lot of kids messed up because of drugs, and the effects it has on the family”
“I will do everything I can every single day to be the voice of our children,” Marshall said. “I’m excited about all the positive (things going on in town) and getting students into skilled jobs. Good things are happening (in town).”
Marshall continued: “Our kids are who we’re (speaking) for, and they are our future,” he said. “And we’ll do everything we can every single day to give them the opportunities they need whether it be in school trades, or whatever the case may be to make Marlette better every day.”
Mary Lancaster, owner of Shear Beauty salon in downtown Marlette, said “there’s good and bad” with everything in business.
“We could be looking at another bar or something worse,” she said. “But we need to look at the fact that (in) this town last summer, just downtown, I counted over 18 empty storefronts. That’s not counting any on the back streets.”
Lancaster said if the city doesn’t “think of something to bring more (business), you will see more and more empty storefronts. Our taxes are high, our water bills are astronomical here in town. If you can alleviate that off some of your people, they will stay…If people can’t afford this, we are a very poor area, they will leave.”
Following public comment, Elia and her clients were prepared to give a presentation and answer questions and concerns from the community.
However, they were unable to address many of the concerns regarding crime, youth availability, odor or other questions due to members of the audience consistently interrupting with statements such as: “Are your three minutes up yet,” and “So, you come out of the city and you’ve decided to take advantage of the small town, the small-town council and us?”
In follow up interviews with the business owners, and former Marlette Police Chief Brian McGinnis – who said he has spent years researching the issue – the News requested insight to some of the concerns raised by community members at the March 3 meeting to provide information regarding the potential operation.
On the point of crime, the recently retired McGinnis told the News he has spent several years doing research, having discussions, and considering the city’s welfare when it comes to this business.
“I have been directly informed from police chiefs from three cities that are comparable to Marlette (in Lapeer and Tuscola counties) and not based on what is happening (in relation to crime) at large metropolises, that there is no increase in crime directly or indirectly related to retail or grow operations,” McGinnis told the News. “In fact, it has provided funding for many law enforcement agencies through the additional revenue it has created.”
McGinnis said that, although retired for nearly two weeks, he has “policed the city of Marlette for nearly 35 years and would argue that I have a pretty good grasp and opinion on what types of crimes or criminal activity we see here in Marlette, and if I had to pick a drug that was most common at the calls for service, hands down, alcohol.”
He continued: “Yet, we don’t seem to ever have the amount of meetings or hoops to jump through when a party store wants to come to town, or any other business for that matter. …I have been involved in many discussions with council members, committees, community members, and citizens alike regarding the proposed business coming to Marlette by Nick and Salam. This has included reviewing of blue prints nearly five years ago with the city manager, realter and perspective business owner, to discussions with law enforcement leaders from communities that already have experiences with these businesses.”
McGinnis, in his research, said he toured several dispensaries, and was enlightened to the business and how “well regulated” it is by the state of Michigan.
“When the business is in compliance, it’s not just because they are good business people,” McGinnis said. “It’s also because they are held to such a high standard by the State of Michigan.”
Saffo addressed many of the strict regulations that business owners must maintain.
Every portion of grow and retail facilities must be visible to the state using security cameras, which must be working at all times or the business is subject to a hefty fine.
“The only place they can’t see, is inside the bathroom,” Saffo said.
As to a concern raised at the meeting that adults over 21 could go into the store, buy up the product and distribute to kids on the street, Saffo said that does not happen.
The State of Michigan, he said, allows only the purchase of only 2.5 ounces per transaction.
However, he said, as business owners they only allow the purchase of 2.5 ounces per day.
And every single purchase, and customer, is trackable by the state.
“As an owner, we all follow state of Michigan policy that every person who comes in has to have an ID mandated by the State of Michigan to be scanned into the system and verified that the person is 21 and older (before) they cross in to the retail area,” Saffo said, adding that the information is all on record, and accessible by the state.
He also noted that, due to the high quality and high prices of the product, along with what amounts to a 16 percent tax (six percent sales tax plus an additional ten percent excise tax), customers don’t come in and purchase product in bulk for street distribution to adults or minors.
As for the grow operation, Hani and Saffo have already put $1.8 million into renovations at the near 39,000 square-foot Karen Street facility.
This includes not just state of the art water and air filtration systems, but they also gutted the entire facility. All the walls have been sprayed with foam insulation 5-inches thick to close “any holes that would release any odor,” Saffo said.
Inside the grow rooms, the average thickness of the walls are 8-inches, so “odor will not travel.”
“The facility will contain over 36 air filtration systems that are constantly filtering every smell before it get’s injected outside (as doors open and close),” Saffo said.
In addition to permit fees and taxes, Saffo said that they will use an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 gallons per day of city water, a “significant cost in water bills to the city.”
They also plan to employee local people.
Saffo said they are looking to employee 30-50 people, with around 90 percent of hires being from the area.
Saffo and Hani have expressed that they not only want to run a profitable business for themselves, but also create a partnership that benefits the city of Marlette through revenue and job availability.
As cultivators, they also want to bring high-quality product to the market.
Both Saffo and Hani have worked in medicinal marijuana for years, and said they began their endeavors after seeing first-hand the health benefits of cannabis.
For Saffo, it was seeing the difference it made in helping his son, who has autism.
For Hani, he said he watched a friend’s mother, who had Parkinson’s disease, begin to function again.
Saffo said now he strives to obtain the best product and highest quality in his work for a market where the average customer, he said, is 42-years-old and many, he said, are taking it “to help their body.”
“I talk to the plant,” he said. “I can understand what she’s saying…what she’s lacking, what she’s not happy with and if she’s happy, I know it. I know what she needs.”
And there is no plant that goes unnoticed by the State of Michigan.
Saffo also explained that if a plant must be discarded, it is still tagged with a serial number – like every single plant – reported, and transported from the facility by a state licensed transportation company.
Every month, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency publishes a public report with, among many other details, how many plants were grown, how many licensed businesses are in operation, and state revenue from cannabis sales.
From January 1-31, for example, the state reported the number of both destroyed and harvested plants to include: 19,959 immature plants destroyed, 14,647 vegetative plants destroyed, and 4,831 flowering plants destroyed. A total of 82,613 plants were harvested for the month.
In the first month of 2025, sales totaled $1,622,315,953.53.
For further information on state regulations and statistics, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency’s reports can be accessed online at: www.michigan.gov/cra/resources/cannabis-regulatory-agency-licensing-reports/cannabis-regulatory-agency-statistical-report.
The next council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, April 7, at Marlette City Hall.
”}]] MARLETTE — In a 4-2 vote last week, city council directed Marlette City Manager Ryan Rudzis to work with the city attorney on drafting ordinances that would allow for one marijuana grow operation and one adult-use marijuana retail facility in the city. The following motion was passed on Monday, March 3, to: “Instruct the city Read More
