Warren City Council adopts ordinance limiting adult-use retailers by zoning and sets $5,000 city license fee

Warren City Council on March 25, 2025, approved an amendment to chapter 19.5 of the city code to regulate adult-use (recreational) marijuana retail by zoning and unanimously adopted a $5,000 annual municipal license fee for adult-use retailers.

Legal counsel for the council urged the ordinance as the most likely path to end ongoing litigation tied to licenses awarded in 2019. The recommendation, and the council’s vote, came after a lengthy presentation from the city’s special legal counsel and more than two hours of public comment both for and against allowing retail marijuana in Warren.

The legal context has dominated discussion. Jeff Schroeder, the council’s special legal counsel, summarized the five-year case known in court records as Pine Brook Warren v. City of Warren and said the initial 2019 licensing process violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act. Schroeder described a long history of hearings and appeals and said the city has incurred large legal costs; he told the council the proposed zoning approach is intended to remove elected officials from “picking the winners and the losers.” Schroeder said, “The lawsuit is called Pine Brook Warren versus the city of Warren,” and later told the council, “we are in total agreement that, this is the strongest, way to end the lawsuit. We feel we feel that it will end the…