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Published 11:01 pm Monday, April 21, 2025
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NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — After several months of deliberation, the Niles Charter Township Board of Trustees voted to approve a recreational marijuana ordinance that will allow retail establishments to set up shop in the township.
The township’s proposed Recreational (Adult Use) Marijuana Establishment Ordinance and its amended zoning ordinance were both adopted by the Niles Charter Township Board. The zoning ordinance passed 5-2 – with trustees Herschel Hoese and Chris Vella casting dissenting votes – and the establishment ordinance passed 7-0. Treasurer Jim Ringler recused himself from the marijuana-related agenda items citing conflict of interest.
Marijuana establishments must be located in the General Business zoning district and would have frontage on S. 11th Street between State Line Road and Fulkerson Road. The marijuana ordinance will go into effect eight days after approval.
“We’ve been working at it since the election last November when the people asked for allowing adult-use recreational marijuana in the Township,” said Supervisor Marge Durm-Hiatt. “It failed three years ago and it came back up last year and passed and we’ve been working on the ordinance ever since then. We’ve been working with the zoning and planning commissions to protect the township as much as possible.”
The marijuana establishment ordinance states that the township has now opted in to allowing for recreational marijuana establishments and requires that all recreational marihuana establishments follow all state regulations as well as local rules and regulations. It also establishes the parameters for the permitting process and calls for the establishment of licensing fees and limitations on the number of licenses.
The application fee will be set at $5,000 for each requested license for a recreational (adult use) Marijuana establishment within the Township.
The amended zoning ordinance removed the requirement for establishments to have cameras installed with automated license plate recognition capabilities. After lengthy discussions with Berrien County Sheriff Chuck Heit, the township determined the requirement was not necessary because the county has installed cameras with automated license plate recognition capabilities along the highway.
“He’s been very involved with it in New Buffalo Township because they have the same thing in a state line issue and they’re swamped up here,” she said. “He’s given us a lot of advice, and I’m very confident that it’ll be regulated, and the state has so many more protocols than we do. Dispensaries have to have inside cameras and they have to allow the state to tap into those and so they can drop in anytime they want and see what’s going on inside the district. There’s a lot of controls, I hope it works well.”
There will be three types of marijuana establishments available:
An unlimited number of retailers
One secure transporter establishment
One safety compliance facility
The following would not be authorized and would not operate within the boundaries and jurisdiction of the township:
Growers
Processors
Microbusinesses
Event Organizers
Temporary marijuana events
Consumption establishments
Excess grower licenses
Cannabis concerns
Township officials voted unanimously in May 2019 to opt out of the recreational marijuana business. In 2022, voters turned down a proposal that would have allowed marijuana establishments in Niles Charter Township limits before approving a proposal in November 2024.
Dozens of community members attended the meeting Monday night, with some questioning the allowance of unlimited establishments as well as concerns regarding establishments potentially being located in proximity to the Lighthouse Autism Center, 2753 S 11th St. According to Durm-Hiatt, the center is not considered a public or private school in the building’s zoning, so distance requirements do not apply.
“The board has looked at all of this for the last six months. We didn’t go into it lately at all,” Durm-Hiatt said.
While the ballot language stated that the township had to allow a minimum of four establishments, Durm-Hiatt said the board determined that putting a cap on the number of establishments would allow the township to avoid legal pitfalls.
“After Consulting with our attorney, he said if you limited it [to four], you could have lawsuits either way,” she said. “If we have 10 or 20 people apply, who gets the four? So we decide to go unlimited and let the dispensaries fight it out.”
Some community members questioned the restriction of establishments to the space between the Indiana-Michigan border and Fulkerson Road. While she expects the township will receive several applications, Durm-Hiatt said she did not believe the number of dispensaries that eventually open in the township will be an issue.
“There are only so many available properties to be perfectly honest. That’s a mile-and a-half,” she said. “I think we’re going to see maybe five, and that’s truly my personal guess – they’re just going to weed themselves out because [dispensary owners] know they’re saturated also. I don’t think we’re gonna see a lot of them.”
Durm-Hiatt and the board of trustees believe that the township can now move clearly and directly through the establishment of reasonable, effective recreational marijuana business regulations that are consistent and compliant with state law. Over the last six months, the board of trustees considered a series of actions to establish the framework to allow for recreational marijuana businesses in Niles Township.
“Everybody talks about Buchanan and Buchanan is so compact downtown – it’s very disruptive to the people there,” Durm-Hiatt said. “This is on a highway. People are going to be going by 55 miles an hour or faster. They’re going to be coming up from Indiana and going back; people in [the city of Niles] are still going to go to the Niles ones. I hope it doesn’t affect it in a negative way.”
The City of Niles, Buchanan, Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Berrien County and Cass County were among the 302 municipalities statewide that received payments from the marijuana Regulation Fund in March. Each eligible municipality and county received more than $58,200 for every licensed retail store and microbusiness located within its jurisdiction.
For the 2024 state fiscal year, there was more than $331 million available for distribution from the Marihuana Regulation Fund.
The distribution breakdown for local municipalities and counties is as follows:
Buchanan: Number of licenses – six; city distributions – $349,371.96
Cassopolis: Licenses – two; village distributions – $116,457.32
Dowagiac: Licenses – two; city distributions – $116,457.32
Edwardsburg: Licenses – two; village distributions – $116,457.32
City of Niles: Licenses – seven; city distributions – $407,600.62
Berrien County: Licenses – 27; county distributions – $1,572,173.82
Cass County: Licenses – 8; county distributions – 465,829.28
“}]] NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — After several months of deliberation, the Niles Charter Township Board of Trustees voted to approve a recreational marijuana ordinance that will allow retail establishments to set up shop in the township. The township’s proposed Recreational (Adult Use) Marijuana Establishment Ordinance and its amended zoning ordinance were both adopted by the Niles Read More
