LEONI TWP., MI - East Jackson Community Schools has changed its stance on selling a former elementary school building to a marijuana management company, officials said.
Due to an impasse related to language in the original purchase agreement, the district's Board of Education in December let an offer from The Dromos Group of Waterford expire.
The group was proposing to buy the vacant Bertha Robinson Elementary School, 5400 Seymour Road, for use as a medical marijuana growing and processing facility, Superintendent Steve Doerr said.
That impasse has since been removed and the board now is expected to accept a new full-price offer of $900,000 from The Dromos Group during a special meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 20, Doerr said.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in East Jackson Elementary School, 4340 Walz Road, and the board is interested in hearing from any residents who have concerns, Doerr said.
The district's initial concern in selling the building to this buyer related to possible future changes in state legislation that could make marijuana use recreational instead of just medicinal, Doerr said.
"What's only legal today, may not be in the future," Doerr said. "The board has to do what's best for East Jackson students and the community."
Those concerns have been removed by deed restrictions written into the current purchase agreement that the buyer has agreed to, Doerr said.
The language restricts use of the building only to state-licensed medical marijuana growing and processing operations, Doerr said. The restriction carries with the property in perpetuity regardless of who owns it, he said.
"This locks in this use now and forever, regardless of changes in legislation or ordinances or owners," Doerr said. "No sale or dispensing of marijuana - medical or otherwise - will be allowed there ever."
The offer from The Dromos Group is one of two East Jackson received for Robinson Elementary, Doerr said. Both indicated the building would be used for medical marijuana growing and processing, he said.
Both Robinson and Memorial elementary schools were closed at the end of the 2014-15 school year. East Jackson's kindergarten through sixth-grade students are now consolidated in East Jackson Elementary School in what was the district's former middle school.
In January 2015, both schools were listed for sale with the Thomas A. Duke Company.
While Robinson is vacant, Memorial Elementary School, 345 N. Dettman Road, which has an asking price of $3 million, is 60 percent occupied by Jackson County Intermediate School District personnel, Great Start Readiness Program classes and East Jackson's W-A-Y alternative school.
In Jackson County, Leoni and Parma townships are the only townships so far that have adopted ordinances for state-licensed medical marijuana facilities. In Leoni, officials said they have received 44 applications and approved 30.