Concerned Highland Square residents, local church members and leaders of a neighboring behavioral health organization no longer need to be concerned, at least for now, that a cannabis dispensary will move into their neighborhood.
Huron-based OPC Cultivation LLC (Ohio Patients’ Choice) — which operates under the brand name Firelands Scientific — withdrew its petition to establish a licensed dual-use cannabis dispensary. The change was announced during the Dec. 1 meeting of Akron’s Planning and Economic Development Committee.
The location of the proposed store would have been at 730 W. Market St. at Dodge Avenue.
The grass isn’t always greener
When the petition for a conditional-use permit was brought to the Planning Commission for consideration last summer, the dispensary — to be called “The Landing” — was met with opposition.
In a May 30 letter to City Council, Allyse Hawkins, vice president of behavioral health at Oriana House Inc., said she recognizes “the legality of marijuana use under state law, as well as the right of businesses to operate responsibly,” but she added that opening a marijuana dispensary near Oriana House “creates many challenges to the successful recovery of [the client population], including risk of relapse and undermining treatment goals.”
Oriana House provides court-ordered alcohol and substance use disorder treatment at its offices on West Market Street across the street from the proposed dispensary.
In a letter to Akron Zoning Director Mike Antenucci and then-Ward 1 Council Member Sam DeShazior, Nancy Holland — a Ward 1 resident and former council member — asked the city’s Zoning Commission to deny the petition.
“The proposed dispensary use is, again, not objectionable because it involves marijuana,” Holland said, but that the dispensary’s entrance and adjacent limited parking would be on a residential street and that dispensaries are prohibited in residentially zoned areas.
“This proposed use, at this location, raises safety, economic and general welfare concerns,” Holland said in the letter, “all enumerated in Akron’s codified criteria.”
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Highland Square neighbors voice concerns
Ward 1 resident April Levack wrote to council July 24 about the “steady decline in the once eclectic and community-driven region” of Highland Square, as well as of her concerns for the future of her neighborhood. She noted that “a drive-through business that hinges on marijuana, medical or recreational, is not helping matters — even if in reputation alone.”
Members of Highland Square’s Akron Christian Reformed Church (ACRC) also wrote to City Council. They explained that, for more than 13 years, the church has run a ministry program called “The Landing,” which provides food and clothing every Friday to more than 160 households and more than 300 individuals.
Congregants said they were concerned about the potential name confusion between the dispensary and the church’s longstanding distribution program as well as the impact a dispensary might have in such close proximity to their ministry.
ACRC Elder Claudia Amrhein said that the dispensary “was a topic of concern, but the church hasn’t taken an official position on the application and will continue to track its progress, if resubmitted.”
Akron Planning Commission does not recommend approval in June
Last April, Drew Finkes, the real estate development manager with Firelands Scientific, petitioned the Planning Commission for a conditional-use permit for the dispensary. In mid-June, the commission reviewed the request and recommended that the petition not be approved.
The proposal moved to council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee — a public meeting was expected to be scheduled, but the petition was withdrawn.
A Dec. 3 attempt to contact Firelands Scientific for comment was unsuccessful.