ESCANABA — Plans for the first commercial marijuana establishment within the city of Escanaba, not located on tribal land, hit a snag Thursday when the developer found itself in a battle with retail craft giant Hobby Lobby.

The issue came to a head when the city’s planning commission held a public hearing on a special land use permit that would allow The Fire Station, LLC., based in Marquette, to open a retail facility in the former Hudson’s Classic Grill, located on Lincoln Road and adjacent to the Delta Plaza Mall. Hobby Lobby, which is located in the mall near the site of the former restaurant, balked at the proposal, sending a letter to the city threatening to leave if the development were to proceed.

“Since opening, it’s been Hobby Lobby’s privilege to serve the Escanaba community, however, the proposed marijuana use in the mall threatens that continued relationship,” read a portion of the letter, which was addressed to the city’s mayor.

While the letter repeatedly referred to the proposed marijuana dispensary as a being within the shopping center, the land the former restaurant sits on is not owned by Dial Properties, owner of the mall itself. That may not matter, however, as the property the former Hudson’s sits on is lacking one key feature: an entrance.

The only driveway the property has connecting to the roadway is designated and engineered to be an exit only, and given its location, it is unlikely that the Michigan Department of Transportation would be willing to reengineer the driveway to make it two-directional. That means that currently the only way to access the property is to drive through the parking lot owned by Dial.

“It’s not an entrance and MDOT will put their foot down. That’s the state. That’s not us and they will put their foot down,” said Planning Commission Chair James Hellerman.

This could be a problem for any potential development at the site, but is more likely to be an issue because of Hobby Lobby’s strong objections to the proposal.

A separate issue raised during the meeting is that five of the existing ten spaces thought to be assigned for parking at Hudson’s are partially located on Dial property, leaving only five parking spaces available for potential Fire Station customers. While this was a major topic of discussion Thursday and may be a practical issue, it is not a legal one that could be used to reject the proposal, as the city’s zoning ordinance does not dictate how many parking spaces must be available on commercial properties.

Regardless, with the possibility of both access and parking hinging on Dial’s cooperation and Dial’s decision to cooperate being heavily influenced by the potential loss of Hobby Lobby as a lessee, the project could be in trouble.

“Hobby Lobby, we have a lease with them, and so regardless of what the mall owners think, what we think is not necessarily going to drive this train,” said Brian Reilly, president of Dial Management.

Hobby Lobby’s lease agreement specifically “prohibits the operation of a head shop, electronic cigarette shop or a store selling marijuana within the shopping center,” according to the letter sent to the city by the craft giant. It is unclear whether any other businesses currently operating in the mall would take issue with The Fire Station locating next door, but according to Reilly, clauses like the one in Hobby Lobby’s lease are not uncommon for retailers.

None of the planning commissioners seemed surprised by the fact Hobby Lobby took issue with the possibility of being neighbors to retail marijuana. The craft chain brands itself as holding conservative Christian values and is well known for being the plaintiff in a landmark 2014 Supreme Court case after the retailer objected to providing contraceptive care to employees as mandated under the Affordable Care Act. In that case, Hobby Lobby was victorious and the court ruled privately-held, for-profit corporations are exempt from regulations owners object to on religious grounds.

Ironically, Hobby Lobby’s conservative values may play a larger role in the future of The Fire Station’s proposed development than the actual church located inside the mall. Concerns about the proximity of churches to various businesses districts in the city prompted the city to scrap mandatory buffer zones around places of worship.

The commission voted 5-1 to approve the plan on the condition that The Fire Station could get a legal easement to access the property. The lone “no” vote was from Commissioner David Mason, who objected to the project based on its potential impact on neighboring businesses.