The City of Delaware is considering a moratorium on adult-use cannabis operators, cultivators, and retail dispensaries in the community while it gains a better sense of how to regulate adult-use cannabis relative to planning, zoning, and business regulation.
A first reading for the moratorium, which would last for up to two years or until the City voted to revoke it, was held during Monday’s meeting of the Delaware City Council.
“This is a moratorium for a period of up to two years,” City Manager Paul Brake said during the meeting. “It’s not the intent that it’s a firm two years, but to look at primarily the zoning ordinance that governs and specifies this type of use for a recreational dispensary, which does not exist in the zoning ordinance.”
Currently, existing medical-use cannabis dispensaries that wish to sell recreationally have been issued provisional dual-use licenses by Ohio’s Division of Cannabis Control (DCC). As of last month, nearly 200 Ohio dispensaries have been granted dual-use licenses.
Brake, speaking on his experience with recreational marijuana in a previous role, said, “I’ve served as the city manager since Aug. 1. I came from a state — Michigan — that has also decriminalized marijuana, which occurred in 2018 … We had a little over three years of experience dealing with licensing and the challenges associated with that, and also in a very active community that got into other uses of cannabis including public consumption as well as many other elements. It’s not the intent to do some exhaustive study but rather putting some additional regulations in place that are commonplace of what’s termed as a condition-use permit, and that is a practice that we have enabled through our zoning ordinance that balances the rights of the private property owners as well as taking into consideration the neighborhood and the community as a whole.”
Brake noted conditional use permits are used in a variety of other businesses, such as adult entertainment, junk yards, car washes, and even religious establishments.
As of Monday, the proposed zoning amendment was scheduled to go before the Delaware Planning Commission on Sept. 4 and, if passed, would appear before the Delaware City Council for a first reading during its Sept. 9 meeting. A public hearing would then be held during the second reading on Sept. 23.
However, many members of council took issue with the details of the moratorium, especially its duration. Councilwoman Catlin Frazier said she believes the two-year timeframe for the moratorium is excessive and wants to see the expiration of the moratorium fall in line with the state’s final regulatory decisions, which are likely to come well before Delaware’s proposed two-year window.
Frazier also made it clear the moratorium is in no way meant to prevent people from consuming cannabis in Delaware and said there needs to be a clearer distinction in the wording of the ordinance that erases any confusion about a resident’s legal right to grow privately within the constraints of the state law.
“This is not to ban private citizens (from consuming or growing cannabis),” she said. “This is for business and commerce and where they can operate business in the city, not who can use and who can grow. I’ll be very frank — if you can DORA, you can flora. And that’s just what the voters of Ohio have decided they want to do. But I think this really has to do with how Delaware is going to create commerce.”
Frazier added that she believes the City can achieve everything it needs to hash out within six months, a notion Councilwoman Linsey Griffith echoed while also stating she is not willing to support an ordinance that would see the City forego the tax benefits associated with the shops for an extended period, especially at a time when the City is asking residents to support a tax levy to support its revenue shortfall for capital improvements.
“I think we can get it done in six months,” Griffith said. “If we need to separate it out and say retail’s for six months and maybe cultivators for nine months or a year — I’m not willing to vote for a moratorium of more than a year for anything. I feel like the state and local government will have more information to be able to make more informed decisions.”
Griffith also voiced concerns about the lack of public feedback on the proposal leading up to Monday’s meeting, which didn’t include a public hearing for the ordinance.
“This is an immediate issue,” she said. “Our voters have spoken and we need to respect the voice of the voters. So I think this needs to go back to the drawing board and be rewritten and then come back to the council for a public hearing. This is not a public hearing and I feel like there are a lot of people who want to speak on this issue and didn’t realize they needed to speak during public comments because this is not a public hearing, so you don’t get to talk about this issue. So I will not go forward on a vote until there is a public hearing because our residents deserve a chance to voice their opinion.”
After concerns were raised about the inability of the public to speak on the ordinance, the council agreed to allow anyone in attendance the opportunity to share their thoughts on the moratorium. One of those speakers — Sunbury resident and downtown Columbus-based Nar Reserve Dispensary co-operator Ali Bazzi — questioned what a moratorium would mean for his future Delaware shop, which he said he’s already heavily invested in monetarily.
“About a month ago we were given the opportunity to apply for an additional license,” Bazzi told the council. “We submitted three locations and, before we could submit, we had to reach out to the cities and let them know we were looking to apply in their cities. I don’t know if you guys know this but we already have a sign-off from the City of Delaware to open a dispensary, and we were already picked by the Division of Cannabis to put a dispensary at 60 Coughlin Lane off of Columbus Pike … We were already told where we’re putting our location and we did everything Cannabis Control asked of us. We have a sign-off form we’ve already given to (City Attorney Natalia Harris).
“We’ve invested a lot of money into this already … We’re kind of at the point right now where, Friday night, we were hit with a curveball that a moratorium might be put in place. We’re here trying to figure out if there is a moratorium put in place, where does it leave us? We’ve already put in all this money, we have a lease ready, and we got zoning sign-off and already submitted it all to Cannabis Control.”
Bear River Dispensaries, currently Delaware’s lone medical dispensary, has received its dual-use license and will be exempt from any moratorium the City may enact. John Oberle, the attorney representing Bazzi, asked that the City also grandfather Bazzi’s dispensary into the city and make it exempt from any moratorium to avoid Bazzi being “detrimentally harmed” by having to relocate at this stage in the process.
Harris noted the form Bazzi referenced was submitted to her on Monday ahead of the meeting, and she was not aware of Bazzi’s potential Delaware business prior to the ordinance being placed on the agenda.
No votes were taken on the moratorium, and it is anticipated the language of the ordinance will be altered to reflect the wish of the council prior to the next meeting. A public hearing will also be scheduled to coincide with the second reading.
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.
