Dearborn Heights, MI Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Adopted on an emergency basis by Ordinance No. H-18-09 on December 11, 2018, City Code Section 8-60 responds directly to Michigan's Initiated Law 1 of 2018, the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act, which took effect ten days after certification of the November 6, 2018 election and let the State of Michigan begin licensing marihuana establishments within twelve months. The city council found that no administrative rules had yet been promulgated to ensure the safety, security, and integrity of such establishments, and that municipalities would bear the administrative burden of reviewing applications if the state could not process them all.

Rather than zone marihuana businesses into a commercial or industrial district, Section 8-60(b) exercises the opt-out option the Act itself provides, electing to prohibit within the city's boundaries marihuana establishments as defined by the Act. Because the prohibition is citywide and total, there is no zoning classification, special land use process, or distance separation standard for marihuana retailers, growers, processors, or microbusinesses anywhere in the City of Dearborn Heights, unlike neighboring communities that opted to license and zone them. Subsection (c) treats any violation as a nuisance per se, with each day of continued operation counted as a separate offense, and subsection (e) gives both the Dearborn Heights Police Department and the city's department of ordinance enforcement authority to enforce the ban.