POWELL — Powell City Council once again squashed the possibility of marijuana dispensaries in the city, at least until Dec. 31, 2027.
However, that date is not firm.
During their Tuesday meeting, council unanimously approved extending the city’s moratorium on marijuana dispensaries through 2027, or until council approves amending the zoning code to establish regulations and guidelines for such establishments.
It’s a matter of which comes first.
The moratorium extension is to provide more time for the city’s staff, planning commission and council to develop an appropriate regulatory framework, City Manager Andy White wrote in a memo to council.
“So you do have a timeframe with which a decision will be necessary,” White said. “Planning staff feels comfortable with the durations set forth, again next year, so that we have ample time to present options.”
In July, council approved the third moratorium on dispensaries, extending the existing prohibition until Dec. 31, 2026 ahead of a zoning code rewrite, which would have totally banned dispensaries.
When council members met again Aug. 6, they amended the new zoning code, removing all marijuana language in a split vote.
The change came in response to city officials receiving public pushback to the outright ban in the zoning code.
“This really got a lot more attention after it was introduced. We received some feedback from the public. It wasn’t something that was overly talked through,” White said at the Aug. 6 meeting.
Powell City Council first adopted a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries in 2024, following Ohio voters’ approval of State Issue 2, which legalized adult-use marijuana in the state.
Development Committee discusses regulation ideas
City planning and zoning staff are already working on developing dispensary regulations and presented their preliminary ideas to the development committee, which also met on Tuesday.
Planning Administrator Claudia Husak and Planning Director Logan Stang presented their survey of eight cities in Ohio that have implemented different restrictions in their zoning codes.
Husak said some cities require further distances from schools, churches and parks than the state-mandated 500 feet.
Others have implemented further restrictions on the amount of dispensaries able to operate in the city, operating hours and what zones allow for their operation.
In her presentation, Husak proposed the newly-established commercial zones, flex-industrial zones and downtown-mixed zones could serve as potential areas for a dispensary.
She also asked the committee to consider if, in the zoning code, dispensaries should be by right or by conditional use.
By right would allow the development proposal to move forward, granted it conforms to zoning and building codes.
Conditional use gives the city more authority to implement stricter regulations by allowing a property to be used in a way not normally allowed in that specific district.
Councilman Tyler Herrmann, who also sits on the development committee, said he was in favor of allowing them via conditional use, if he votes to allow them at all.
Committee members ask for survey, council members push back
Herrmann also said he wants community input before he makes any final decision.
“I’m not opposed to completely banning it in the city if that’s what I think the residents of Powell want,” Herrman said.
”I know there’s a lot of conversation about Powell voting yes on Issue Two — to allow marijuana to be legal in this state is not the same as saying, I want a dispensary in my city,” he said. “You can think one without wanting the other.”
Herrman suggested the city send out a survey for feedback. White told him he would look into it, noting the recent e-bike survey from the city received over a hundred responses.
Committee Members Shaun Simpson and Carlos Crawford disagreed with Herrman being okay with an outright ban.
“I don’t know why we would turn down an income generator,” Simpson said.
An average dispensary generates roughly $175,000 annually directly for its host city or village, according to an Ohio State University data analysis.
This money comes through the Host Community Cannabis Fund, which returns 36% of the state’s 10% adult-use excise tax directly to the municipalities and townships that allow for dispensary locations.”
During council, Vice Mayor Tom Counts said council should be responsible for deciding the fate of dispensaries in the city, not a survey. Councilman David Lester agreed.
“There are a whole host of issues for which we get no input on the particular issue du jour from our residents,” Counts said.
“We’re here because we’re the ones that are taking the information and trying to come up with what we think is a reasonable answer for this particular community.”
