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Ravenna is set to place a moratorium of up to a year on marijuana related businesses that aren’t already doing business in the city.
Ravenna City Council is expected to vote in May on the moratorium on adult cannabis dispensaries in the city. It would exclude Supergood, which opened in 2022 as a medical marijuana dispensary and hopes to expand into the adult cannabis market.
Issue 2 impact in Portage
Voters in Ohio in November 2023 approved State Issue 2, which allows adults ages 21 and older to use and grow cannabis. The measure’s passage made Ohio the 24th state to legalize adult-use marijuana.
Dispensary owners and cultivators say the law will allow them to have the first licenses to operate dispensaries for adult cannabis. Supergood and Bliss Ohio in Kent plan to sell cannabis from the same dispensaries where medical marijuana is sold. Meanwhile, the owners of Wellspring Fields, a medical marijuana cultivation site at 4000 Lake Rockwell Road in Ravenna Township, intend to open Wildflowers, a medical marijuana and adult cannabis dispensary on Streetsboro’s Public Square.
What would Ravenna’s moratorium do?
Ravenna City Council President Rob Kairis said the moratorium would prevent dispensaries from opening anywhere in the city for a year. It also would prevent such businesses from opening in the central business district because of parking concerns.
Kairis recently told Darcy Fankhauser and Kevin Zuber, who represent the corporation that owns Supergood, that the limitations wouldn’t affect the Ravenna dispensary unless it plans to relocate from its shop at 554 N. Chestnut St. Both confirmed that the store has no plans to move.
Fankhauser commended council for setting limitations.
“From what we’ve seen in other places, it can become a bit of a free-for-all,” she said. “I think you’re doing the right thing.”
Councilwoman Christina West said the city can watch the parking situation at Supergood over the course of the next year to see if it becomes an issue. Supergood expanded its parking lot shortly after opening the store.
Carmen Laudato, a member of the planning commission, recently told council that the commission wanted to look at regulations in other cities. However, the commission discovered that many cities were imposing moratoriums because it was still unclear what the state was going to do.
Councilwman Amy Michael commended council for bringing the the moratorium to council.
“The Planning Commission is being proactive by bringing something to council,” she said. “I think that’s huge. I think the soner we can move on this, the better.”
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
