A year and a half after a local court decision enabled several new marijuana businesses to open in Port Huron, the appeal against the ruling that favored the city finally has a hearing date later this month.
Several local permit applicants for adult-use marijuana outfits first filed lawsuits against the city in early 2021, disputing the results of a scoring system utilized as prescribed in an outside ordinance approved by voters the previous November.
In January 2023, litigation having pressed pause on any marijuana development, St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Lane upheld Port Huron’s original licensee results that awarded seven entities 24 local recreational and medical marijuana permits at 10 different locations across the city.
Now, appellants of the 2023 ruling, largely consolidated under the first complainant 1864 US-23, LLC, and the city will have the chance to plead their case before a three-judge panel on July 9 in the state’s court of appeals in Lansing.
“Generally, everybody goes and makes their argument. We’re requesting that the court affirm Judge Lane’s decision, and I expect that will happen,” said attorney Al Francis, who’s represented the city over the last three years in marijuana litigation. “But I imagine the court of appeals generally doesn’t take too long. So, we should have a decision … by the end of the summer.”
The entity 1864 US-23, LLC, had sought provisional licensure for a marijuana retail front at a former gas station at 1912 Pine Grove Ave. when it applied for a local permit. It filed suit in March 2021.
Soon after came complaints from BRT Capital 3, LLC, and Farm Science, which had respectively proposed cannabis outfits on Lapeer Avenue and in the old Seaway Terminal, as well as JARS Holdings, which had applied for permits off Electric or 24th avenues before ultimately taking over a successfully approved license downtown.
Lane’s decision allowed approved licensees to move forward with opening up for business despite appeals.
Since then, JARS Cannabis opened at Quay Street and Huron Avenue in January — using a permit location that originally went to Green Cultivation but was legally transferred under the 2020 ordinance — while Moses Roses kicked off business at 1600 Pine Grove Ave. this spring.
Three other operators have also taken steps to open within the last year, getting the OK for a required special use permit from Port Huron's planning commissioners.
Exhibit Cannabis was set up to open a retail front and consumption lounge at 1033 River St. before a fire damaged the property late last year. As of Friday, it was still listed as unopened on its website.
Meanwhile, Revolution Strains, Inc., which initially received licensure farther west on Lapeer, has begun retrofitting the former Pizza Hut at Lapeer and 10th Street into a new storefront, and Portage Acquisitions, LLC, was approved to operate at 515 Wall St. but has not begun to redevelop the site.
It wasn’t yet clear what happens to ongoing marijuana development and opened businesses if the appeals court reverses Lane’s decision.
Contact reporter Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
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