HAMILTON, Ohio — Hamilton City Council will soon consider proposed changes to the city’s zoning laws involving marijuana, cannabis, tobacco, nicotine and vape retailers.
The changes, which Hamilton’s Planning Commission recently voted to recommend to Hamilton City Council for its approval, are aimed at creating consistent rules for new marijuana-related businesses and updating existing regulations for similar products based on public safety concerns, according to staff comments on the proposed changes.
In December 2023, Hamilton approved a temporary ban on all marijuana-related activities, including selling or growing it, but after further legal review and internal discussions, officials drafted new zoning rules that would allow medical and adult‑use marijuana dispensaries under strict conditions.
The proposed changes would:
- Keep cultivation, processing, lounges and testing facilities prohibited
- Allow dispensaries only as conditional uses in the B-2 (Community Business) and BPD (Business Planned Development) zoning districts, and only on high-traffic streets
- Prohibit dispensaries in historic districts, next to residential properties or within 1,000 feet of schools, childcare centers, youth centers or preschools
- Ensure that dispensaries are at least 500 feet from playgrounds, churches, opioid treatment programs and public libraries, and at least one mile from any other dispensary
Limit operations to indoors with no visibility from public areas, no on-site consumption and no mobile or temporary operations
The changes are scheduled for a first reading and a public hearing at Hamilton City Council June 10, with a final decision set for June 24, assuming there are no delays.
The Planning Commission also recommended changes for approval that would update rules for tobacco, nicotine and vape retailers by clarifying distance requirements, prohibiting locations in historic districts or near residential uses, banning on‑site consumption and requiring permanent indoor operations.
Ohio voters, including those in Hamilton, approved Issue 2 in November 2023 with 56.8% of the vote, legalizing recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older. The measure saw 50.16% support in Butler County.
While state-level possession is legal, local municipalities, including Hamilton, have enacted or discussed moratoriums on recreational marijuana businesses.
Planning commission member Dave Davidson said that the proposed change of zoning for such businesses in Hamilton, following years of putting them on hold, is “a step in the right direction.”
“I still think we're overregulating where we put the establishments,” Davidson said at the commission’s most recent meeting May 7. “I know it's consistent with vape shops and tobacco shops, but I can walk in a Kroger to buy cigarettes if I want to (or) buy a vape up at Walgreens and those are right there in my neighborhood.”
Planning commission member Matt Von Stein said he believes the city has lost out on a lot of tax money it needed in past years.
“Hamilton seemed to have this stigma about it,” he said. “(There’s) a ribbon cutting every month for a bar, so the stigma of alcohol is one thing versus the stigma marijuana has. We’re getting a lot of money from alcohol. It would be nice to get some tax money from other things too.”
David Stark, a resident of Hamilton’s High Street, lauded commission members for their stance.
“I am very happy to hear that there are some voices advocating for even a wider, larger perspective on all the different opportunities and options that are embracing marijuana could provide, be it a nice dispensary or two, possibly cultivation, maybe even one day a lounge,” Stark said. “I applaud the idea that we might be open to this, and as you're open to it, I do want to remind us of the possibility that, with a lot of things in Hamilton, this could be a great success.”
Stark said he hoped Hamilton would allow the measure “room to breathe, so that in the event that it is successful, we have not hampered ourselves by restrictions that are even stronger than what the state would demand.”
In an April 22 letter to existing businesses, Hamilton Senior Planner Ed Wilson said if the amendments are approved, “as an existing licensed establishment, you would not be subject to the newly added regulations and would continue operating under the version of the Hamilton Zoning Ordinance (HZO) in place at the time you became a licensed Tobacco, Nicotine and Vaping Sales establishment.”
According to staff comments on the proposed changes, the city developed the zoning updates after years of work across several departments. The overall goal is to keep the zoning code current as new types of businesses emerge
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