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The Akron Planning Commission was met with a jam-packed crowd for its June 13 meeting, even before the 9 a.m. meeting began. The line was out the door at Akron City Hall with more than 45 people gathered as the commission decided whether to recommend approval of three vape shops and two marijuana dispensaries.
At the top of the list for attendee Lori Lawrence, Oriana House’s vice president of correctional programs in Summit County, was a proposed marijuana dispensary at 730 W. Market St. in Highland Square on the corner of Market and Dodge Avenue. That’s right next door to (across Dodge Avenue) an Oriana House facility that houses its drug court programs.
Nearly 800 people are involved in four separate community corrections programs run by the nonprofit, according to a statement Oriana House provided to the Planning Commission.
The drug court programming diverts individuals with drug-related offenses from the criminal justice system and helps set them on a path to recovery, Lawrence said. This is a vulnerable population because they are very early in recovery, she said, and exposure to environmental cues like a dispensary could increase the likelihood of relapse.
Clients may report daily, several times a week, weekly or several times a month to this location.
“In the recovery world, the analogy that’s used a lot, like if you spend all day sitting in a barber shop, sooner or later, you’re going to get your hair cut. So, if you spend all day in a bar or near a dispensary or in a drug area, it just increases the chances that you’ll use,” Lawrence said.
Opposition has been raised over a proposed marijuana dispensary that would be located in this building at 730 W. Market St. in Highland Square, on the corner of Market and Dodge Avenue. (Screenshot via Google Street View)
Speakers at the Planning Commission meeting raised a variety of concerns, based on notes from Akron Documenter Gigi Fuhry.
One speaker spoke against this petition and the others for vape, marijuana and CBD-related dispensaries, basing her position on constitutional, religious and general concerns for the community (smell, violence). She said she believes these companies’ ownership originates outside the city. She’s worried about the conditions consumers are medicating with these products and why underlying causes aren’t being addressed.
A local homeowner running a home-based daycare said her children would pass the dispensary as they walk to the Highland Square Branch Library. She said the proposed dispensary will affect her business.
A homeowner who said she could see the dispensary from her home had concerns about adequate parking and the impact on increased traffic for emergency vehicles. She asked for a forum with neighborhood residents before the petition is approved.
Another homeowner is worried the dispensary will lower property values for other homes on Dodge Avenue, near where the facility would be located.
There was significant opposition to the dispensary at the June 11 Ward 1 meeting as well, Council Member Samuel DeShazior said. But there is also a growing number of people in favor of it, he said.
“Some folks are afraid. Some folks feel like it’s a necessary service for healthcare in our community,” he said. “And then there’s several who don’t have an opinion one way or the other. They just don’t want to be impacted by anything that would cause them to deem this as being unsafe.
“And certainly, we want people to feel safe in our communities,” DeShazior said.
He asked representatives from OPC Cultivations, LLC — the company doing business as Firelands Scientific, which is hoping to open a dispensary called the Landing — to answer questions at his June 11 ward meeting because he knew a controversy was brewing.
Some of the concerns addressed at the meeting included dispensary patrons consuming substances onsite and inadequate parking. (Consuming adult-use cannabis in public areas is prohibited, and, according to planning documents, the facility will have 29 parking spaces.) And some residents simply did not want a dispensary in their neighborhood.
In the long run, DeShazior said, there needs to be education around dispensaries because there is plenty of confusion. For example, people confuse dispensaries with smoke shops, he said.
Other meeting attendees were confused about what a dual-use dispensary is and whether patrons would need a doctor’s recommendation. (Dual-use dispensaries serve adults 21 years old and older with proper identification and medical marijuana patients who receive a physician’s recommendation and register with the state.)
“We want to hear both sides of the issue and also make sure that we can accommodate folks who are feeling some discomfort because they don’t have all the information that they need,” DeShazior said.
Firelands Scientific has several locations across Ohio, but this would be its first in Akron.
“We are a great community partner. We try to be. We’re here at your meetings. We will continue to go to your meetings. We do cleanup events in our other cities. We are close with the police departments and the community,” said the Landing’s compliance manager at the Ward 1 meeting.
While the building carries a West Market Street address, patrons would enter and exit via Dodge Avenue. The proposed dispensary would be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The signage outside the facility would be minimal, and it would not change the face of the neighborhood, said the real estate development manager for Firelands Scientific, Drew Finkes. He told Signal Akron that the operation will be quiet, and the business expects to draw people who already live and travel in the area.
“You won’t notice a difference if we are there or not,” he said.
At the June 13 meeting, the Planning Commission voted to recommend disapproval of the conditional-use petition. Next, the proposal will move to Akron City Council’s Planning & Economic Development Committee.
The committee will host a public hearing in the coming weeks, and those interested will be able to speak at the hearing or submit a statement. The committee will then make a recommendation to City Council as a whole, which will vote to approve or deny the permit or take additional time to decide.
“]] A proposed marijuana dispensary on West Market Street in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood is meeting with opposition. Read More
