MANSFIELD — Recreational cannabis dispensaries may soon be licensed and approved by the state for the City of Mansfield without any new, specific local zoning regulations or requirements.
Mayor Jodie Perry, speaking after a special city Planning Commission on Friday morning, said those recreational licenses through the state’s Division of Cannabis Control may be issued by early September.
Those businesses would have to meet state requirements and local requirements found in existing Mansfield zoning regulations for business districts or industrial districts. They would also have to get their plans approved by the permitting and development office.
They would not have to meet the specific zoning regulations and operational rules that have been discussed by Perry and City Council for the last several weeks, including that such dispensaries operate only in B-2 (general business) zones.
That’s because officials have determined zoning changes must first go through the Planning Commission during regularly scheduled meetings and that a hastily called special meeting would not suffice.
A vote on localized zoning regulations was scheduled Aug. 20, but Perry said that won’t happen now, even after council scheduled it during a special meeting four days ago.
“Since we left council on Tuesday, we have continued to work with our outside (legal) counsel,” Perry said.
“We basically took a step back, had the outside counsel and our law office take a look at all of our codified ordinances, (Ohio Revised Code), as well as the rules, and basically concluded we have not met the guidelines for public hearings regarding zoning.
“There was different (legal) guidance … it was not done intentionally. We were operating on a different assumption. This week it was confirmed we do need to go through the (formal Planning Commission time frame).
“The recommendation from the law director and the mayor’s office is that we do not move forward with these pieces of legislation on Tuesday,” the mayor said.
Instead, she said, her administration would ask lawmakers to approve legislation limiting the number of dispensaries in the city to three.
The mayor said she also expects council to vote on a proposal to repeal a ban on medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, which has been on the books for six years.
Perry said the speed of the recreational cannabis dispensary licensing process has been difficult to match since voters approved State Issue 2 last November and the state didn’t begin to share operational guidelines until June.
It became an issue beginning on June 19 when City Council voted 5-3 against a six-month moratorium on such businesses that Perry proposed in April.
“In zoning … there are a lot of steps and requirements. To really be able to do this, it would be at break-neck speed. Our attorney is advising us not to move forward with enacting them next week,” she said.
“Even if we could restart that 30-day zoning clock today … the timing is just very, very difficult,” Perry said.
The mayor said she will continue to seek local zoning changes that would impact future cannabis dispensaries.
“I would have liked to have our zoning in place. The challenge we had was when this decision was made … council turned down the moratorium in June … and the state started issuing their rules at the same time,” she said.
“There are a lot of local municipalities statewide that are grappling with this. We are certainly not alone. I was in a meeting (Thursday) with other mayors from across the state and very much hearing the same thing. It’s because of the timelines that are here.
“Hindsight, 20/20, I wish I knew what I know now two months ago,” the mayor said.
Perry said the rapid timeline was the reason she sought the six-month moratorium earlier this year.
“I wanted to see what the rules were to kind of a have a fuller picture of it. Ultimately, the community made a decision on it. I have closely followed public comment online … lots of conversations … all of the conversations that have been at council.
“I do hear the fatigue from people that are like, ‘This has been talked about since November.’ But we have new council members, a new administration, a new law director. It’s new in the state,” she said.
“It feels a little bit like we’re building the plane as we fly it, which isn’t ideal, but it is what it is,” the mayor said.
