The Grove City Planning Commission voted against recommending that City Council approve a permit for a new marijuana dispensary during its meeting on Oct. 7.
It’s one of the first signs of opposition to the new dispensary after two previous planned dispensaries in the city were rejected by Grove City Council and Mayor Richard “Ike” Stage.
Real estate company ACT Investments is seeking a special use permit from the city to open a recreational and medical marijuana dispensary at 3989 Jackpot Road, near Interstate 71. ACT Investments would own the land, while dispensary company Ohio Clean Leaf would lease it from them to operate the dispensary, according to the business’ permit application.
Three of the four planning commission members voted against recommending the dispensary for approval, with only Chris Roach voting yes. The dispensary’s permit will be considered by City Council at its next meeting on Oct. 20, albeit without the planning commission’s recommendation for approval.
At the meeting, planning commission members raised concerns about traffic, marijuana use at nearby hotels, the dispensary’s proximity to an addiction facility and more.
Julie Oyster, the chairperson of the commission, said she had recently stayed in a hotel in a state with legal marijuana, and found that her room smelled of smoke from the plant.
“For me with that experience and having six hotels right (near the dispensary), that would be, I cannot vote for this in the positive today,” she said at the meeting.
Chris Welsh, the director of finance at Ohio Clean Leaf, told the members he understood their concerns but pointed to Ohio’s strict dispensary laws as evidence the new facility wouldn’t disrupt the community.
“(Dispensaries) do not look like smoke shops. They do not look like tobacco shops. They do not look like drive-throughs or state liquor stores. They look more clinical. They look like a dentist’s office. They look like an optometrist’s type of office,” he said.
The new dispensary was only made possible after City Council voted to slightly loosen Grove City’s dispensary rules in August, making a few more dispensary sites viable.
Grove City’s previous rules only allowed dispensaries in sites that were not within 500 feet of a residential property boundary. That proximity requirement was changed in August to apply to the business’ physical structure and not its property lines.
Mayor Stage cited the city’s original 500-foot rule when he vetoed a dispensary planned by Ohio Cannabis Company in January. When reached by a Dispatch reporter on Oct. 7, Stage said he was not willing to make a statement on his plans for the Ohio Clean Leaf dispensary yet.
Transportation and Neighborhoods Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.