As local governments continue to chart the path forward following the passing of Issue 2 last November, Powell has implemented a 12-month moratorium on the retail cultivation, processing, and dispensing of marijuana in the city.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Powell City Council, the moratorium was unanimously passed by the council to allow for more time to study the implications and decide whether to limit or prohibit adult-use and medical marijuana-related businesses, as well as to potentially amend business and zoning codes to regulate the location and operations of those businesses.
The moratorium, which includes medical marijuana, means the city will not accept applications for building permits, zoning approvals, or certificates of occupancy related to marijuana businesses. Existing businesses also won’t be able to expand to include “marijuana-related activities,” according to a memo from City Manager Andrew White to the council.
“It’s not a prohibition eternally,” White said during the Tuesday meeting. “It can be dropped at any time, or it could be put into place permanently. But there is still a lot of identification through the actual regulation of this new law that is not completely understood, so this provides the city the ability to have further discussion.”
Powell Law Director Yazan Ashrawi said the moratorium is a “tool that is used for and required by the city to use this time to evaluate how these uses can and should be regulated in the city, whether it’s a prohibition, no regulation at all, or somewhere in between.”
Ashrawi noted medical marijuana, which is currently prohibited in Powell through land use and zoning provisions, is included in the moratorium “out of an abundance of caution.”
“During the next 12 months or sooner, the city will undertake reviewing this process, and we’ll better understand the adult-use side of it once the state regulations are finalized and those uses start coming on board,” he added.
Councilman Tyler Herrmann, who first presented the possibility of instituting a moratorium in Powell, said on Tuesday he’s cognizant of how resoundingly Issue 2 passed in Ohio and, specifically, Powell. However, he noted that doesn’t necessarily represent a clear picture of how the community wants retail marijuana handled in the city.
“I think the moratorium is a good idea because it maintains the status quo while we can try to get a better sense from the community about how they want that implementation to take place,” Herrmann said. “Just because you want sales legalized in the state generally, does not mean you necessarily want a retail marijuana shop in downtown Powell. So, we need to figure out where the citizens are on that. I think this is a good option, and it’s obviously better to do that review beforehand than let things progress and then it’s harder to put that genie back in the bottle.”
He later added, “Issue 2 was an initiated statute, not a constitutional amendment, which means that Issue 2 is not necessarily the final word on how things are going to look. And we know that the legislature is currently debating whether or not they want to make changes, which I think further bolsters the argument for a moratorium to let things settle and see what, if any, differences from the language of Issue 2 will be implemented.”
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.
