A proposed medical marijuana dispen-
sary on Joy Road in Plymouth Township
has been awaiting a response from officials
since last August.
Stephanie Fischer of Ann Arbor is pro-
posing the new facility, which is legal under
state law after voters approved the distribu-
tion for specific medical conditions in 2008.
There is still a federal law banning the sale
andpossession ofmarijuana inplace.
Fischer distributes medical marijuana
to patients from her home, but has pro-
posed opening a storefront dispensary. She
said that her request for an occupancy per-
mit from the township has received no
response from officials. She completed a
required questionnaire for the permit in
August, she said, and claims that she has
met with Township Police Chief Tom
Tiderington, but has yet to receive any offi-
cial decision onher application.
Fischer has appeared at two meetings of
the township board of trustees seeking
information during the public comment of
the agenda, but has received no response to
her requests. She subsequently hired attor-
ney James Fiselski to represent her in her
efforts to obtain the necessary permits from
the township.
Supervisor Shannon Price indicated
that he is reluctant to approach the issue,
considering the conflicting state and feder-
al laws regarding the sale of the substance,
even for prescribed medical use. Price said
he is organizing a committee to study the
best approach to the situation and that
Tiderington, a representative of the build-
ing department and trustees will be includ-
ed.
Price said that Fischer's plan is to also
rent growing space to other caregivers, who
will grow marijuana at the site and allow
for more patients to be serviced at the loca-
tion. State law allows a registered caregiver
to provide the drug to five patients and to
grow up to 12 plants for each patient.
Patients must have a state registration
which requires a medical doctor's prescrip-
tion formarijuana.
Fischer is currently paying rent on the
1,400 square foot building she hopes to
open as her dispensary.
slaveswere secreted. Thiswas told byMrs.
Arthur Mills, of Plymouth who several
years ago investigated some of the stories
for a paper she was writing for the
Plymouth Historical Society,” Hanchett's
research said.
“I think to demolish the site for a park-
ing structure, would be a very poorway for
this commission to honor those in
Plymouth who risked their lives, limb and
property, when they hid escaped slaves on
the way to Canada. It would also be a poor
way for the City of Plymouth to honor
diversity,” Sabo told the commissionmem-
bers.
“There are many other reasons why
this site should not be demolished. I think
if this commission voted to approve of
demolition, in the eyes of residents and
those that call Plymouth their home town,
it would be a decision this commission,
and Plymouth city government, will never
recover from. I say this because it states on
the City of Plymouth website, that primary
duties of this commission is to safeguard
the heritage of the City of Plymouth…fos-
ter civic beauty,” he added.
TheDDA owns the property, purchased
from the Saxton family for a reported
$2.25 million last year. No construction or
demolition can take place at the site with-
out the approval of the Historic
Commission members since it is located
within the city historic district.
According to Tony Bruscato of the
DDA, the mission of the group “to add to
the downtown parking stock, particularly
on the Saxton's parcel, remains. It will
simply require some additional time,
energy, and creativity on our behalf to
make it a reality.”
He suggested in an email to local busi-
nesses that they should, “Keep an eye on
theDDAboardmeeting agenda (every sec-
ond Thursday of the month, 7 p.m. at city
hall) as the Saxton's property is a monthly
item.”
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December 10, 2015
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FROM PAGE 1
Plymouth water ‘crucial’ to Salem development
Proposed marijuana dispensary awaiting decision
Use of Plymouth Township
water and sewer lines is crucial
to a proposed 588 unit develop-
ment planned in the northeast
edge of Washtenaw County.
Salem Springs, a development of
Schostak Brothers, will include
townhouses, detached condo-
miniums and single-family
homes.
Some Salem Township resi-
dents say the undeveloped area
directly off M-14 and Godfredson
Road is in the least desirable
area of the township. The
Schostak-owned land is mostly
vacant except for a few sections
used for crop farming. The
parcels surrounding the proper-
ty are zoned for residential or
agricultural use. That zoning will
change, officials said, if
Plymouth Township agrees to
sell water and sewer services to
the area.
Salem Township Supervisor
Gary Whittaker, 60, a packaging
company executive spoke can-
didly last week about the
Schostak development, focusing
on the plan to build almost 240
homes at the corner of Napier
andNorth Territorial Road on 50
acres, comparing it to the rapid
“out of control” growth and com-
mercial density in Lyon
Township.
“It's called the USD Corridor,”
said Whittaker. It stands for
Urban Service District and it's
the dividing line between the
two townships, Plymouth and
Salem.”
“If we can control the growth
it will be a win-win for both com-
munities,”Whittaker said.
According to Whittaker, the
developer approached former
Plymouth Township Supervisor
Richard Reaume “a few years
ago,” to cut a deal for water and
sewer usage.
Whittaker said Schostak has
been involved in litigation with
township residents for years.
“They want everything to be
right…they (Schostak) want big-
box stores. It's not in the master
plan.”
The main question, according
to Whittaker, is the capacity of
Plymouth Township to provide
services for 1400 acres.
Whittaker said he knows
Plymouth Township has experi-
enced water pressure issues in
the past.
“A water tower would have to
be in if there's capacity for the
1400 acres. The (Plymouth
Township) tower by Home
Depot…they didn't do it right,”
he said.
Whittaker said he recently
met with Plymouth Township
Supervisor Shannon Price and
Director of Public Services
Patrick Felrath and talked with
Northville Township Supervisor
Bob Nix to discuss the proposed
water-sewer plans.
“You know the situation that
happened over in Northville
about the psychiatric hospital,
well that was a Schostak deal
and Price was fighting Schostak
on that.”
Whittaker was referring to the
effort in 2008 by the City of
Livonia to annex 414 acres of
Northville Township property.
The effort followed a protracted
battle with Schostak who had
purchased the land at Haggerty
and Seven Mile Road, once the
site of the Northville Psychiatric
Hospital. Agreement could not
be reached between Northville
Township and the developers.
Bloomfield Hills based Real
Estate Interests Group (REIS)
and Schostak Bros. filed a law-
suit against Northville Township.
A year later, REIS installed
mobile homes on the property
and the township approved occu-
pancy permits for the stated pur-
pose of having “guards” live on
the site. These “residents” then
filed legal paperwork to have the
property annexed toLivonia.
Price confirmed last week he
worked as the campaign manag-
er for Northville Township in
that2008 fight against Schostak
Bros. and wanted to clarify that
he has no special political con-
nection with Schostak even
though CEORobert Schostak is a
former chairman of theMichigan
Republican Party and Price was
director of constituent relations
for State Attorney General Bill
Schuette, a republican.
“I ran the campaign against
him trying to annex the 440 acres
of Livonia, so you got a situation
where, you know, he (Schostak)
spent $400,000 trying to annex
400 acres and I represented
Northville and we spent $35,000
and he was unsuccessful. We
were successful in stopping the
annexation. He (Schostak) wasn't
happywithme then,” Price said.
In 2013 Hubbell, Roth and
Clark were hired by Plymouth
Township to study the feasibility
of selling water and sewer serv-
ices to SalemSprings. A report in
2013 indicated that the Plymouth
Township sewer systemwas ade-
quate but additional water main
improvements along Napier to
Powell Road and an elevated 1-
million gallonwater tower would
be required.
The report indicated that a
new supply point from the
Detroit Water and Sewer
Division at Joy and Napier Road
with connections made to the
existing water system along
Napier south ofNorthTerritorial
Road and at Napier and Powell
Road.
Plymouth Township officials
approved a new feasibility study
earlier this month to be per-
formed by Wade Trim. Schostak
will fund the study.
“I heard they're an engineer-
ing outfit that will give you a true
picture,” Whittaker said of Wade
Trim.
Whittaker said he was con-
cerned about the Napier Road
corridor.
“I just want to see both com-
munities be successful and say
this is a nice area when you
drive down that corridor. It's
going to be developed. My only
interest is it's done right and
looks right.
“Take the politics out of it,” he
said.
Don Howard
Staff Writer
