Grove City Council rejects another marijuana dispensary, this one near I-71 – The Columbus Dispatch
(This story has been updated to add additional information.)
Grove City Council voted against approving a special-use permit for what would be the city’s first marijuana dispensary.
City Council at its Nov. 17 meeting voted 5-2 against approving an Ohio Clean Leaf dispensary at 3989 Jackpot Road after residents, business owners and several council members shared concerns about the business. Only Council members Randy Holt and Melissa Anderson voted in favor of the dispensary.
The dispensary is the third marijuana business rejected by Grove City officials since recreational marijuana became legal in Ohio in August 2024. Two previous planned dispensaries in the city were rejected by Grove City Council and Mayor Richard “Ike” Stage.
After the first two rejections, City Council voted to slightly loosen Grove City’s dispensary rules in August, making a few more dispensary sites viable, including the site rejected by council on Nov. 17. The dispensary would have occupied a vacant medical office in a commercial area just off of Interstate 71.
Chris Welsh, Ohio Clean Leaf’s director of finance, told council that the dispensary would not be a nuisance to the area and would provide the city with tax revenue from marijuana sales.
Ohio Clean Leaf is going to look throughout Franklin County for another site now that the Grove City dispensary has been shot down, Welsh said.
“We’re just going to have to re-evaluate and look for the right location. But again, we really liked the Grove City location, so we were really hoping that that location would have worked out for us,” he said.
Residents who spoke at the meeting said they were concerned about the proposed dispensary’s proximity to a drug addiction recovery facility and about increased traffic. They also questioned the need for the business in a county with 21 other dispensaries.
Aman Patel, the owner of the La Quinta Inn & Suites near the proposed dispensary, attended the meeting along with several other hotel owners and managers from the area. He said they were opposed to the dispensary because of traffic concerns and how it would affect the character of their neighborhood.
“Most of the people that come on the weekends are family oriented. And obviously marijuana’s still a drug. So, we just don’t feel it’s like useful to the image of our hotels that we want,” he said.
Council member Randy Holt said voting against the dispensary would be government overreach and it was not the council’s job to decide which legal businesses are viable.
“If they think they can put another (dispensary) here and make money, that’s up to them,” Holt said. “I’ll remind you we have three Moo Moo car washes in Grove City, right? Nobody’s worried about having three Moo Moo car washes. If they didn’t think it would do good business, they wouldn’t put a third one here.”
The future of marijuana dispensaries in Grove City is unclear. Three of the council members who voted against the dispensary will leave the body in January when their terms end.
Transportation and neighborhoods reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.