NILES — The Planning Commission unanimously approved three pro-marijuana agenda items at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at the Niles Fire Station Complex.

The commission approved a special land request, allowing medical marijuana business HDS Investments to build a growing facility on the site of the former Tyler Refrigeration parking lot. The commission also approved HDS’s site plans.

Upon voting, the commission will also recommend to the Niles city council to amend the zoning ordinance to include industrial greenhouses and recreational marijuana during the council’s June 10 meeting.

The commission meeting’s audience was largely made up of people representing medical marijuana businesses. Commissioner and city councilman John DiCostanzo said it was the largest audience he had seen at a Planning Commission meeting.

During periods for public comment, representatives of these businesses spoke in favor of allowing a special land use permit, industrial greenhouses and medical marijuana.

“If any of you have seen the property of Lake and 13th Street, we’re already growing weeds there,” said Jeff Durrell, an area representative of HDS Investments, referring to the plants that threaten gardens. “We would just like to do it more organized.”

Durrell went on to say that HDS’s growing facility, if the special land use request was approved, would be discrete and secure. HDS would build a fence around its 16,000-square-foot building and surrounding field and have a “state of the art” security system.

He also said that the growing facility would employ 12 full-time associates from the neighborhood, who would be paid between $15 and $25 an hour. The 12 employees would occupy a site that once employed 500 people before Tyler Refrigeration closed in 2009.

“We’re here to be part of the community, we’re here to give back to the community and we’re from the community,” said area resident Mike Heskett, a representative of HDS. He said the business has already participated in numerous community events.

With the planning commission approving HDS’s site plans, the business is closer to breaking ground. First, though, it must make sure the contingencies passed with its approved site plans are met.

HDS must verify its parking spaces, give the city access to its transformers, approve a sewer tap permit and approve a building permit. It must also obtain an approved stormwater and sediment control permit from Berrien County government.

Other medical marijuana business representatives aside from HDS spoke on the benefits of allowing recreational marijuana provisioning and on allowing industrial greenhouses.

Chris Janowsky of Ivory MJ, LCC, which hopes to cultivate marijuana, said he is a proponent of industrial greenhouses. During public comment, he said that greenhouses are a great way for growers to stay compliant to city ordinances while being just as safe, given that proper materials are used.

“You don’t see any massive warehouses growing tomatoes or anything,” he said. “[Marijuana] is just like any other plant, in a sense, and greenhouses are the way that many people recognize the future of the industry.”

Denise Lynch, of Green Stem, LLC, agreed. She said that greenhouses can produce a batch of plants for harvest in half the time an indoor growing facility can.

Lynch – whose business was approved for growing, processing and provisioning medical marijuana in Niles – also spoke on the need to allow recreational provisioning in the city.

“The one thing that I’m concerned about recreational growth in a person’s home is that it’s not being grown in an anti-microbial setting,” she said.

In a recreational growing facility, plants must be lab-tested to ensure that no harmful chemicals exist, she added.

After all public comment closed, commissioner DiCostanzo said he was not a marijuana enthusiast, but he can see the benefits of allowing recreational marijuana provisioning in city limits.

“If you have [marijuana] available commercially at reasonable prices, there’s no reason for you to be cultivating it at home,” he said. “And I think, ultimately, my goal and vision would be that legalized recreational marijuana and legalized medicinal marijuana will reduce and hopefully eliminate the black market and all the illegal activity.”

He also said that amending the zoning ordinance to allow industrial greenhouses could lead to businesses growing plants other than marijuana, which could have positive economic effects.