Council to consider cannabis zoning

FINDLAY — Zoning rules that will allow cannabis stores to set up shop in Findlay have made their way to city council. The zoning changes would also allow for marijuana growing and processing facilities. The legislation is expected to be introduced to council today, during its regular meeting. Council will meet at 6 p.m. in the Findlay Municipal Building, 318 Dorney Plaza. All council meetings are open to the public and are live-streamed on the city's YouTube channel: Findlay Ohio. In a letter to council, dated Dec. 13, Matt Cordonnier, director of the Hancock Regional Planning Commission, said the changes will create "cannabis overlay districts" in the city, where retail cannabis stores will be a conditional use. The rules would limit the number of retail facilities in the city to no more than two. Growing and processing facilities would also be permitted in the I-1 "light industrial" district. In November, council's Planning & Zoning Committee recommended a C2 commercial overlay. A zoning overlay is a special zoning district applied on top of an existing base zone. Overlays are used to add extra regulations or standards to land use. Four city areas have been identified for the overlay: Tiffin Avenue, Hancock County Road 99-Interstate 75, Trenton Avenue, west of I-75, and West Main Cross Street and I-75. After being introduced to council, the legislation will be referred to the City Planning Commission and then will go back to council's Planning and Zoning Committee for further review. Four city areas have been identified for the overlay, including Tiffin Avenue, Hancock County Road 99-Interstate 75, Trenton Avenue, west of I-75, and West Main Cross Street and I-75. Council voted in August to enact a 12-month moratorium on the cultivation, processing, or dispensing of recreational marijuana within city limits to allow time to enact the new zoning rules. State law gives the legislative authority of a municipal corporation and township trustees the authority to "prohibit or limit the number of adult-use cannabis operators" permitted within the municipality or in the unincorporated territory of a township. Most townships in Hancock County have enacted moratoriums on recreational marijuana. Findlay placed a two-year moratorium on the cultivation, processing, or dispensing of medical marijuana within city limits shortly after Ohioans voted to make it legal in 2016, with council later voting to prohibit it altogether. The city's moratorium does not prevent the cultivation of marijuana in private residences for private use.