Mount Pleasant planners heard a request to shrink a Fancher Street grow from Class C to Class B

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Mount Pleasant’s Planning Commission took public comment Thursday night, Oct. 8, on a request to cut the licensed plant capacity at an existing adult-use marijuana grower on North Fancher Street, a change city staff said would shrink the operation rather than expand it.

Lowkey Properties, LLC, owned by Sergio Valiente, sought Special Use Permit PSUP-26-003 at 1110 N. Fancher St. to move from an Adult-Use Marihuana Grower Class C license — up to 2,000 plants under state rules — to Class B, which caps cultivation at 500 plants. The 0.23-acre site is in the city’s SD-I Industrial Special District. The commission met at 7 p.m. in the City Hall Commission Chamber, 320 W. Broadway St.

The same company already holds a Class C special use for the building, approved Aug. 4, 2022. Changing the state license type retriggers the city’s special-use review, according to the Oct. 8 staff report by Planning and Community Development Director Manuela Powidayko. Staff recommends approval, with conditions that the applicant keep a valid state grower license, continue to meet the ordinance’s grower standards and satisfy Public Works requirements.

In a project narrative attached to the packet, Lowkey says wholesale-market costs — including the wholesale tax — made Class C cultivation uneconomical in the small Fancher building. The company moved primary production to a larger licensed site elsewhere and wants the Mount Pleasant building for mother plants and clones that supply those other locations. Proposed hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; the applicant did not list which days of the week. No building additions, retail sales or public storefront are proposed.

Neighbors include a veterinary office and a cabinet shop on industrial parcels, plus nonconforming single-family homes to the east and south. Staff notes the grower has operated since 2021, that odor and light controls would stay in place, and that fewer plants should ease sewer and neighborhood impacts. Building Safety, Public Works and Public Safety filed no new objections in the packet.

The commission’s other public hearing that night was Raising Cane’s request for a drive-through restaurant at 1516 S. Mission St., which staff also recommended approving with conditions. Commissioners approved that project unanimously, Central Michigan Life reported. It was covered separately when the packet posted.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: This story was written before the Oct. 8 Planning Commission meeting, and its meeting language and headline have been changed to the past tense. Central Michigan Life reported Oct. 9 that the commission granted a special use permit to a cannabis business on the north side of Fancher Street, which the paper identified as White Ash Cannabis, and unanimously approved Raising Cane’s. Lowkey’s PSUP-26-003 was the only Fancher Street request on the agenda, but the city had not posted minutes or a vote count as of Tuesday, Oct. 13. The commission’s next meeting is Nov. 5, the paper said.

Updated Oct. 14, 2026: As of Wednesday midday, Oct. 14, the city’s Planning Commission minutes page still had no Oct. 8 minutes PDF. The prior Central Michigan Life account of that night stands; formal vote language awaits the minutes.

Sources:
Central Michigan Life, Ella Miller, “Raising Cane’s on pace to open in 2027,” Oct. 9, 2026, https://www.cm-life.com/article/2026/10/d-canesvote-news-100926
City of Mt. Pleasant Planning Commission, Oct. 8, 2026 meeting packet (PSUP-26-003 staff report and applicant narrative), https://cms2.revize.com/revize/mtpleasant/Planning_Community%20Development/Meeting%20Docs/Packet%2010-8_rev.pdf
City of Mt. Pleasant, Notice of Public Hearing, Oct. 8, 2026, https://cms2.revize.com/revize/mtpleasant/Planning_Community%20Development/Meeting%20Docs/Both%20PH%20Morning%20Sun%2010.8_mp.pdf
Photo: Magicpiano, “MountPleasantMI HistoricDistrict3,” Sept. 11, 2017, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MountPleasantMI_HistoricDistrict3.jpg

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