July 16 Ward 8 meeting covered by Documenters Killian Reed (see his notes here) and Melanie Mohler (listen to audio from the meeting here).
Residents discussed the potential building of a dual-use marijuana dispensary at 1956 W. Market St., at the intersection with Frank Boulevard, during the July 16 Ward 8 meeting hosted by Akron City Council Member Bruce Bolden.
Several community members at the meeting spoke against the business, which would be owned by Tango Ventures LLC and operated as a Klutch Cannabis dispensary along with its three other Ohio locations.
One resident said traffic at that Fairlawn Heights intersection (on the border with Northwest Akron) is already congested due to the presence of a Starbucks and a Taco Bell. She said women will be less likely to go to Pink Petals Florist or Ken Stewart’s Grille in that block if a dispensary opens.
She also asked Jeff Fusco, the vice president of Akron City Council who was at the meeting, what would occur when shoppers line up outside the dispensary to make their purchases.
More and more dispensaries are going to be opened, but council is expanding the required distance between them to one mile, Fusco said. “And I suspect that demand is eventually going to decrease as there’s more opportunity for these folks to get this stuff,” he said.
An employee of Pink Petals Florist, who wished to remain anonymous, said she and other staff members have seen numerous car accidents at that intersection and noted that the alley behind the building, located next door to where the dispensary would be built, is always crowded with trucks making deliveries to Ken Stewart’s Grille.
“If you’re going to put a dispensary in Akron, I am just here to say: ‘For God’s sakes, put it someplace else,’” she said.
Dispensaries are ‘as secure, or more, than a bank’
Jason Butterworth, an attorney with Brennan Manna Diamond, also spoke at the meeting, which was held at the Northwest Family Recreation Center. The city’s legislation, he said, means dispensaries cannot be located within 500 feet of a school, church, public park, public playground or public library. They must also be located in a retail or commercially zoned district.
As an example, he said a typical gas station has more than 1,000 transactions a day, but “this site, based upon the historical data, will produce 100 to 150 transactions a day, of which 60% are online orders, where a person picks a time slot and not everybody is cued up at the same time.” And unlike bars or smoke shops, he said, dispensaries do not allow on-site consumption of their products.
Lauren Delande, a licensed pharmacist and Klutch Cannabis’ vice president of retail operations, explained that the dispensaries are required to have a pharmacist and to have an on-site security guard at all times. She said they are safe businesses.
“Our dispensaries are as secure, or more, than a bank,” she said. “We have a third-party security system with 24-hour monitoring. We’ve had no incidents at our dispensaries, and we’ve partnered with local law enforcement to actually enhance the security of our surrounding neighbors.”
She spoke of two incidents — unrelated to Klutch businesses — that occurred in the neighborhoods near the dispensaries, and in those cases, Klutch was able to provide its surveillance video to aid police.
As for parking, Delande said the West Akron site would have 22 parking spaces for customers with 10 additional employee spots at a nearby location. She said that’s double the number required by the city.
“We have a high standard for what it will look like,” she said. “In Lorain, we have a landscaper that comes weekly. We put up a nice-looking fence. The building looks much better now than it did.”
Delande said it is difficult to find appropriately zoned spots to locate dispensaries and reminded the audience that “something will go in there eventually.” Another fast-food restaurant, for example, would bring more traffic to the intersection than a dispensary. She also encouraged city leaders and residents to support Klutch — a locally owned business — rather than one that may be headquartered out of town.
“And, as a pharmacist, I have seen firsthand the impact that medical marijuana has had on a lot of customers’ lives,” she said.
Dispensaries are highly regulated by the state
Tango Ventures LLC petitioned the city’s Planning Commission for a conditional-use permit to construct the Klutch Cannabis dispensary. On June 13, the commission approved the petition. The West Market Street property where the dispensary would be located is zoned for retail use.
The dispensary would be a single-story, flat-roof, 2,480-square-foot building, according to the petition. It would sit flush with the sidewalk and would be “consistent with the other buildings in the block.” It also states the dispensary is expected to operate daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Akron-based Klutch Cannabis, led by founder and CEO Adam Thomarios, started in 2020 as a medical marijuana cultivator and processor. Today, the company also has medical and adult-use dispensaries in Canton, Lorain and Loudonville, with additional dispensaries expected to open in Cleveland and Northfield.
In its approval of the petition, the Planning Commission stated, “The proposed construction of the dual-use dispensary would re-purpose an almost decade-long vacant lot at a heavily traveled intersection and will be harmonious with the abutting uses.”
Fusco said during the meeting that while there are no current state or city regulations on electronic cigarette and smoke shops, cannabis sales in Ohio are “heavily regulated by the cannabis control part of the Department of Commerce.”
He said businesses that have Ohio-regulated licenses to cultivate, process, test and sell cannabis are subject to surprise state inspections, required to have 24/7 state-regulated surveillance and must perform employee background checks.
“A lot of us on council, we do a lot of homework on these things,” Fusco said. “Plus we have a number of rules that we have to follow when we consider these things. Does it have enough utility? Does it complement the neighborhood?”
Currently, Akron has three dispensaries: Bloom Akron Dispensary at 737 E. North St., Culture Cannabis Club at 1568 E. Archwood Ave. and The Botanist at 46 S. Summit St. Two dispensaries are located in Cuyahoga Falls: FRX Health, 1682 State Road, and Curaleaf, 1220 Buchholzer Blvd.
Fusco said, in doing research, he learned that the Akron Police Department receives a lot of calls about crimes happening around e-cigarette and smoke shops in Akron, but “you don’t get a lot from the marijuana places.”
The proposed dispensary will be discussed July 28 during council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting at 1 p.m. and at a 5 p.m. public hearing. Both meetings are open to the public and will be held in City Council Chambers on the third floor of 166 S. High St.
The meetings will also be livestreamed at www.akroncitycouncil.org.
After the meetings, the committee will make a recommendation about the dispensary to council.