Decision on cannabis zoning expected today

OG Article

By DENISEGRANT

Mar 18, 2025 8:10 AM

FINDLAY — Findlay City Council's decision on cannabis zoning is expected today.

Council meets at 6:30 p.m. today at the Findlay Municipal Building, 318 Dorney Plaza. All council meetings are open to the public and are livestreamed on the city's YouTube channel: Findlay Ohio. The legislation will be considered under "unfinished business," near the end of today's agenda.

Council's vote was delayed after opponents packed a public hearing about the zoning on March 4. Most of the focus was on the proximity of a proposed retail cannabis "overlay" on West Main Cross Street, near Interstate 75, and its proximity to the Liberty-Benton School District campus, at 9190 County Road 9.

Four areas of the city have been identified for the retail overlay, including Tiffin Avenue; Hancock County Road 99-I-75; Trenton Avenue, west of I-75; and West Main Cross Street and I-75. The proposed legislation would limit the number of retail locations to two within the city and allow for growing and processing facilities in I-1, light industrial, districts. The new rules don't limit the number of industrial sites in the city.

The overlays provide for "conditional use," which would mean that the applicants would be required to appear before the City Planning Commission for approval.

The legislation was up for its third and final public reading before council's vote on March 4. Newly appointed City Law Director Robert Feighner Jr. advised council against tabling the ordinance and said the vote can only be postponed until a specific date, which is tonight's council meeting. Should the legislation fail, it will have to be reintroduced to council for further consideration, Feighner said.

School officials and the district's neighbors, most from the Western Meadows Subdivision in Liberty Township, attended the public hearing, held just prior to the March 4 regular meeting of council.

Liberty-Benton Superintendent Bruce Otley said district buses and children walking to and from school will pass the West Main Cross Street location every day. He said the overlay is "a stone's throw" from the campus."It is clear with the majority of approved locations being mapped out to occur along I-75, that the city is hoping to draw as much out of town traffic and customers as possible," said Brenda Frankart, Liberty-Benton Schools' director of federal programs and curriculum. "Drug use leads to increases in crime, thefts, burglaries, risk of human trafficking and violence, all with easy access to jump right onto I-75 and make their escape. This would be creating a high-risk environment."

Frankart is also a resident of Western Meadows.

She said the school district has bus stops within 100 feet of the proposed retail overlay.

"This is not looking out for everyone's best interest. This is not being a good Hancock County neighbor. This is not an action that helps us all to stay safe. If the elected members of Findlay City Council support his cannabis dispensary, then let these elected officials look for locations within 500 feet of their own households," Frankart said.

The state of Ohio currently requires a 500-foot bumper for the dispensing of medical marijuana around areas with schools, churches and playgrounds. At the hearing, Mayor Christina Muryn said the proposed overlays are compliant with state law.

Councilwoman Holly Frische, R-1, said she will only support industrial zoning, which will keep the stores away from residential neighborhoods.

Council voted in August to enact a 12-month moratorium on the cultivation, processing or dispensing of recreational marijuana within city limits to allow time to enact the new zoning rules.

State law gives the legislative authority of a municipal corporation and township trustees the authority to "prohibit or limit the number of adult-use cannabis operators" permitted within the municipality or in the unincorporated territory of a township. Most townships in Hancock County have enacted moratoriums on recreational marijuana.

Findlay placed a two-year moratorium on the cultivation, processing or dispensing of medical marijuana within city limits shortly after Ohioans voted to make it legal in 2016, with council later voting to prohibit it altogether.

Ohio voters approved the legal use of recreational marijuana in the November 2023 general election. Fifth-two percent of Findlay voters favored it.

The city's moratorium does not prevent the cultivation of marijuana in private residences for private use.