Voters in Yale resoundingly rejected the idea of a marijuana business opening within city limits in Tuesday’s election.
Ballot language asked whether to allow one provisioning center or dispensary in an area zoned commercial or industrial, and according to unofficial results listed by the St. Clair County clerk’s office, 124 residents voted no and 97 voted yes to the question.
City Manager Lorrelei Natke said Yale City Council members opted to put the question before voters after a lengthy discussion about whether to allow a marijuana establishment, particularly on city-owned property on Oatman Road that abutted the city’s sewer lagoon system.
“That is where they had been looking for years to locate a grow operation,” she said Wednesday morning. “They did have someone what was interested. I think that they’re very familiar in the area. They have other grow or retail dispensary operations in the (area).”
Much of that discussion predated her tenure with Yale, as she began the administrator role in January. Natke said part of the discussions fizzled out because giving up the Oatman property meant limiting future growth and other businesses in general, adding, “I hated to give up a property for extra lagoon capacity.”
“So, that’s kind of how that went away,” she said.
For now, post-election, the future of that marijuana discussion seemed clear.
“I think that the council spoke very loudly when they decided as a group to put it to the people. They could have made this decision on their own,” Natke said. “… The optics were it really looked like they had 50% that wanted it and 50% that didn’t. And they didn’t want to make a decision that wasn’t congruent with what their community wanted.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
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