Bethel Township Trustees to vote on cannabis dispensaries

The Bethel Township Trustees will decide on Tuesday, June 4, whether to allow the opening of a proposed cannabis dispensary on State Route 201.

Trustees discussed a draft version of a resolution to limit or prohibit recreational marijuana operators during their workshop meeting on Tuesday, May 28. A vote on the resolution is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4. A draft copy of the resolution can be found on the township website at www.betheltownship.org.

Trustee President Julie Reese said the text of the final resolution is still undecided. She said the trustees have previously discussed limiting the township to one grow facility, a maximum of one processing facility, and no dispensaries, although the current draft resolution posted online would allow for one dispensary.

“I was surprised when the resolution read one dispensary,” Reese said.

“Our community is mixed; there’s some for it, some against it,” she said. “Everybody seems to be for medical marijuana; it’s just the recreational that seems to cause an issue. But if you deny one, you deny both.”

“We asked if we could have a dispensary that was medical only, and were basically told no, you can’t do that,” Reese said.

Paragon Development Group, which currently operates a cultivation facility in Bethel Township, has applied for a state license to construct a dispensary on South State Route 201, depending on the outcome of next Tuesday’s vote.

“Our plan is to take the building that is at 9300 State Route 201 and convert that into a beautiful building with a nice stucco or stone façade,” Paragon Development Business Manager Mark Nelson said during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting. “It would look very professional, like a medical building or a nice retail building.”

“It may not be the best place to put a dispensary here, but the state has a timeline on us and it’s approaching very rapidly in the next week and a half,” Nelson said. “We think that it would be a good place not a great place, and it would be a place that would be easy for us to manage, and easy for us to control.”

Paragon Development owner Jason Wilson, a Bethel Township resident, also spoke during the meeting.

“I’m part of this community,” Wilson said. “It’s not like I’m trying to bring something here to hurt the community in any way, because it’s my community as well.”

“I got into this because of the medical side,” he said. “We’re bringing really good quality medicine to the patients.

“It’s ok with me to have a dispensary on State Route 201,” township resident Donna Hughes said. “After I asked Mr. Wilson some very personal questions, and the answers he gave me; I saw his wisdom and why he wants it.”

“I disagree that we would have a problem with walk-ups, because it’s too far to walk anywhere,” she said.

“There’s been talk about riff-raff, and what kind of people it would bring,” Nelson said. “It’s your neighbors; it’s your family members, it’s a whole bunch of people.”

“If the tax revenue does make it to the township, it will be great,” he said. “Whether or not the state will mess that up or not, we can’t say, but as of right now it’s ten percent of sales, and then I believe it’s 35 or 36 percent that goes to the township.”

“It may be in Bethel Township, but it is right next to Huber Heights, and they do not allow marijuana,” Trustee Beth van Haaren said. “They do not want marijuana, and so do you think that they are ever, ever going to annex that property? Absolutely, positively not.”

“I don’t use marijuana; I have never used marijuana,” van Haaren said. “I’m not a big, heavy drinker, but we have places where you can buy alcohol in the township. I don’t intend to use this dispensary, but I do think it’s a good deterrent for annexation.”

Trustees also discussed the possibility of decreased home values or other negative effects.

“Sticking it to Huber Heights is in fact sticking it to all those property owners who surround that development, who don’t want that particular business there,” Trustee Vice President Kama Dick said.

“I’m still on the fence, so community members who want to send me emails, feel free,” Reese said.

“You cannot separate medical from adult-use anymore, so it’s all or none,” she said. “One concern that I do have is that if we deny a dispensary, we deny it for the medical side as well.”

“This is going to be another gut-wrenching decision for me,” Reese said.

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, trustees also discussed plans to hold a public hearing for zoning language on massage parlors within the township during their Tuesday, June 4 meeting, and a proposed increase in pay for EMTs and paramedics.

Trustees also announced the annual Yard Sale at Friendship Park will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.  More information can be found on the township website at www.betheltownship.org.