Kettering council bans commercial adult-use cannabis, approves $8.5 million in equipment and park appropriations

Kettering City Council on Jan. 28 adopted an ordinance prohibiting commercial cultivation, processing and dispensing of adult‑use cannabis within city limits and approved a package of spending measures and contracts to replace equipment and fund routine capital needs.

City Manager Matthew Greesen, presenting the cannabis ordinance, told council that Ohio law permits municipalities to prohibit one or all commercial adult‑use cannabis activities and that the city had adopted a moratorium while it studied options. “We believe that it's in the best interest of the health, safety, and welfare of Kettering to prohibit the commercial cultivation, processing and dispensing of adult use cannabis in Kettering,” Greesen said during the ordinance presentation.

The council also moved quickly through a slate of routine and larger expenditures tied to the city’s 2025 budget and to recovery from a Jan. 2024 fire at the Parks Maintenance Center. Council approved supplemental appropriations and transfers that together provide funds for park equipment replacement (to be reimbursed through the city’s risk pool), multiple replacement and capital purchases, and repairs needed before the 2025 events season.

Why it matters: The cannabis ordinance sets local policy on licensed commercial businesses that the state now…