A Summit County judge has voided the permit for a proposed marijuana dispensary in Akron’s Merriman Valley, ruling that City Council’s vote to approve The Landing at a former CVS Pharmacy was illegal because the site sits within a mile of two marijuana cultivation facilities. Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce ruled Nov. 3 that council’s decision to grant Firelands Scientific a conditional use permit for 1140 W. Portage Trail was “illegal and arbitrary,” the Akron Beacon Journal reported Nov. 6.
“Upon review of the whole record and due consideration of the arguments presented, the court finds the city’s decision to be illegal and arbitrary,” the court wrote in its decision, as quoted by the Akron Beacon Journal. “As such, the administrative appeal is granted, and the city’s decision to grant the conditional use permit is vacated.”
The lawsuit was brought by Crossings Development Limited Partnership against Akron City Council, the Beacon Journal reported. Crossings argued the permit violated the city’s own zoning rule prohibiting marijuana facilities within one mile of each other, and the court agreed, pointing to the two cultivation sites within a mile of the former CVS. That single finding was enough to vacate the permit outright.
Other arguments never got a ruling on their merits. Crossings had also contended the dispensary failed Akron’s standards requiring adequate evidence that a use “will be harmonious with and in accordance with the general objectives of the city’s comprehensive plan,” and would not change the essential character of the area or worsen it through traffic, noise or odors, the Beacon Journal reported. The court said the city had not included its comprehensive plan or master plan in the record, so it could not conclude whether that argument had merit — a gap in the city’s own paperwork that now sits at the center of the case.
On the question of whether a dispensary fits the neighborhood’s essential character, the court referred to largely negative testimony from residents, the Beacon Journal reported. The decision also noted the city’s posture toward those concerns: “The city responds by indicating that the conditional use process is not ‘a popularity contest’ and mostly dismisses residents concerns,” the court wrote, per the Beacon Journal. The city acknowledged traffic is an issue in the area and said it may try to secure funds in the future for a traffic study.
The ruling unwinds a hard-fought council vote from Jan. 29, when Akron City Council approved the permit 7-5 at a special meeting, according to the Beacon Journal and Signal Akron’s earlier reporting. Bruce Bolden, Linda Omobien, Johnnie Hannah, Eric Garrett and Phil Lombardo voted no, and Donnie Kammer was absent. The Akron Planning Commission had earlier voted 3-2 to recommend approval, Signal Akron reported.
The applicant, Huron-based OPC Cultivation LLC — Ohio Patients’ Choice, doing business as Firelands Scientific — had planned about 3,000 square feet of retail cannabis sales inside the roughly 10,700-square-foot former drugstore, with another 7,700 square feet for three future retail tenants and 59 parking spaces, according to Signal Akron’s reporting of the January approval. Neighbors, many of them residents of the Waters Edge Condominiums behind the building, objected over traffic, the site’s proximity to daycares and homes, and property values, the Beacon Journal reported. Opposition attorney Alex Quay argued in January that the issue was location, not cannabis itself, Signal Akron reported.
It is the company’s second failed Akron site. Firelands previously abandoned a planned location in Highland Square after neighbors raised concerns there, the Beacon Journal reported — and the Merriman Valley ruling now leaves the dual-use medical and recreational dispensary without an Akron home for a second time.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Judge Croce’s Nov. 3 ruling vacated the conditional use permit, on the ground that the Portage Trail site violates the city’s one-mile separation rule for marijuana facilities, per the Akron Beacon Journal. The Landing cannot open on the voided permit. What we’re still waiting on: a representative of Firelands did not respond to the Beacon Journal’s request for comment, and it was not immediately clear whether City Council will appeal the decision, the Beacon Journal reported. Whether Firelands tries a third Akron location is also unanswered.
The case adds to a year of contested land-use decisions in Akron, where zoning fights have run from dispensary permits to the city’s housing rules — the subject of our earlier coverage of Akron’s housing amendments — in a city otherwise celebrating milestones like Akron Early College’s third straight year as Ohio’s No. 1 high school.
What happens next turns on two decisions: whether Akron City Council appeals Judge Croce’s ruling, which would put the one-mile question before a higher court, and whether Firelands Scientific looks for another Akron site or takes its dispensary plans elsewhere. Until one of those moves is made, the former CVS on West Portage Trail stays empty.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA