Zimmerlin
CLAYTON — A moratorium on adult use recreational cannabis is in place in the city of Clayton until September, but council members need to reach a decision on whether to allow retail cultivation or processing.
The matter would have to go through the planning commission process so that legislation can come to council for vote in September. If council decides to ban adult recreational cannabis it would not have to go through the planning commission. Legislation could be drafted and brought to council for a vote.
“If you do want to allow something to what we allow for medical use, I will need direction so we can get that process started,” City Manager Amanda Zimmerlin advised council.
The state has a licensing process for businesses wishing to cultivate or sell recreation use cannabis, but so far no legislation has come out of Columbus regarding the issue. State licensing for such businesses was scheduled to start June 7, but Zimmerlin said it did not matter since the city imposed a moratorium.
Vice Mayor Tim Gorman stated that the city should have some kind of control over adult recreational cannabis.
“Or, we could do like everybody south and just say no,” Gorman said, referring to other local jurisdictions in the southern portion of the county.
“That’s council’s prerogative if that’s what you want to do,” Zimmerlin said. “Currently we allow cultivation and we could have dispensaries in the Main Street district, the commercial mixed use district, and the commerce / manufacturing and industry CMI district – those are permitted.”
Medical marijuana processing is permitted in the Main Street district, and in the commercial and commerce parks and marijuana cultivation is only allowed in the commercial mixed use and manufacturing districts.
“All we allow is processing at this time. We don’t have any of the others,” Zimmerlin noted. “If council wanted to look at something like those restrictions that we have for medical, for recreational, we can do that or if council just wants to ban it outright we can look at one and not the other. That’s fine, I just need direction.”
Councilmember Tina Kelly said she would like to look at having restrictions and Councilmember Kenneth Henning said he would personally not be in favor of having shops that sell marijuana on Main Street.
Councilmember Greg Merkle agreed the city needed to have a say as far as how things are placed.
“I want to see what is coming out of the state in terms of what their potential guidelines might be as far as anything we have that might be in conflict,” Merkle said.
Zimmerlin said that if the city runs up against a September deadline and the state still hasn’t issued anything, the city could extend its moratorium another three months or however long council sees fit.
“I’m fine with doing that – keeping the moratorium and taking that off anytime that we want to,” said Councilmember Brendan Bachman.
Gorman joked that the state house is going to be on summer break and probably wouldn’t pass any legislation until September.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
