Stow council adopts ordinance to allow adult-use cannabis, rejects amendment to tighten siting rules

Stow City Council voted Wednesday to adopt an ordinance that amends multiple chapters of the municipal zoning code to permit adult-use cannabis facilities in the city, following a public hearing and extended staff briefings.

The ordinance, introduced as 24-243, revises zoning chapters to allow adult-use cannabis businesses including dispensaries, cultivators, processors and laboratories, and repeals the city chapter governing medical marijuana. Planning staff and law department staff told the council the package aligns local rules with state licensing requirements while preserving local controls such as limits on drive-throughs and a one-mile spacing requirement between licensed facilities.

The ordinance carries significance because Ohio law sets baseline requirements — for example a state minimum 500-foot buffer from schools and parks — but gives municipalities latitude to adopt more restrictive rules. Planning staff presented six mapping options showing how different buffer distances and prohibitions on properties abutting residential zones would affect where facilities could locate in Stow. Planning recommended a 1,000-foot buffer from schools, parks, playgrounds and from residentially zoned properties; that…