Ravenna, Streetsboro consider limits on adult cannabis dispensaries

More than a month after a measure passed by voters permitting recreational marijuana took effect, some area cities are looking into what they want their zoning codes to say about it.

Streetsboro and Ravenna are discussing zoning issues around adult cannabis after passage of a statewide ballot issue opened the door to recreational marijuana.

Bob Finney, Ravenna's city engineer, said he recently received an email from one of the owners of Supergood, a medical marijuana dispensary in the city. The letter, Finney said, stated that it looked like the state law would permit dispensaries such as Supergood to add adult cannabis to their offerings within 90 days, and asked what the city's stance was on the issue. Council's planning committee discussed some potential regulations before ultimately deciding to keep the matter in committee for further discussion.

Meanwhile, Streetsboro City Council got its first look at potential changes to the city's zoning code, which would regulate stores that sell marijuana along with other amendments to codes on hotels and car washes. A public hearing on the zoning changes will take place Jan. 8.

Local leaders say they're still waiting to see what the state will do. Although state legislators have talked about changing the law, they left for holiday break last week without sending a bill to Gov. Mike DeWine.

Ravenna takes its time

Finney told Ravenna City Council that the city's existing code doesn't permit stores that sell adult cannabis, conditionally or otherwise. Medical marijuana, he noted, is "specifically conditioned" to be in the city's zoning code, but those conditions don't apply to marijuana sold without a prescription.

Council had a brief discussion on the matter, debating whether to apply the same conditions that exist for medical marijuana to adult cannabis and questioning what regulations the state would come enact. Ultimately, council decided to keep the issue in committee and continue the discussion.

"I think we've got some time on this," Kairis said.

Streetsboro's limitations

Streetsboro's proposed ordinance addressing adult cannabis is lumped in with an ordinance addressing hotels and car washes. The hotels and car washes are being limited following a recent market study that raised concerns Streetsboro's market is over-saturated.

The proposed regulation would limit the number of marijuana dispensaries in the city to two. The dispensaries must be located in a stand-alone facility and could not be part of a multi-tenant building such as a shopping center.

The city's code now allows for testing facilities to be located in industrial areas, but the proposed language removes those uses from that district. That's because newer regulations from the state allow dispensaries to co-locate with other medical marijuana-related uses. The city has one testing facility, North Coast Testing Laboratories on Wellman Road, which would not be affected.

Council members questioned the logic behind the regulations and whether they would have unintended consequences.

Councilman Justin Ring said he often visits family in Michigan and has noticed "a dispensary on every corner." While he doesn't want to see that in Streetsboro, he said he also worries that the regulation keeping dispensaries out of multi-tenant buildings would, in effect, bar them from the city.

John Cieszkowski, Streetsboro's planning and zoning director, said the regulation mirrors the city's limits on medical marijuana dispensaries. Those are barred from multi-tenant buildings because the thought was that the security required would be too much to ask of a plaza owner.

Councilman Steve Michniak said the new law would get marijuana to more people.

"I no longer have to play the game that I have an illness, I can just buy it like I buy beer at Sammy's," he said. But he added that the city doesn't put limits on businesses that sell alcohol.

"I would like to see us treat this legal product in the same way we regulate alcohol," he said.

Economic Development Director Patrick O'Malia said he suspects dispensaries would see traffic but not the crowds some have talked about. He recalled that a few years ago, a dispensary owner called wanting to set up shop in Market Square Plaza, and O'Malia told him that was impossible.

"I said ,'You cannot, because there's a church there, and a day care,'" he said. He added that regulations keeping dispensaries from being within 500 feet of schools or day cares would limit potential sites more than city regulations would.

Mayor Glenn Broska urged council to move forward with the ordinance.

"We can always go back and change it if we find there's something we're not going to be able to do," he said. "The state is going to take its time."

Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna, Streetsboro consider limits on marijuana dispensaries