“I think it hurts our development of the area and sends absolutely the wrong message of what Middletown is about and what we are working to become,” said Middletown City Manager Doug Adkins.
Vice Mayor Joe Mulligan said city officials would “take appropriate steps to protect our residents and business owners.” He then added: “This gives us another reason to vote against the proposal at the ballot box.”
Adkins said city administration will be reviewing all of its options and discussing the matter with Middletown City Council for policy input. He said this topic “will get a lot of attention between now and election time.”
One Butler County city has already given the issue a lot of attention by preemptively banning medical marijuana sales within its limits before the measure even goes to Ohio voters. Hamilton City Council is holding a public hearing Wednesday at its 6 p.m. meeting on the zoning changes that would ban medical marijuana sales in all parts of town.
Councilman Tim Naab said the proposed zoning changes are part of a plan “to bring logical, common-sense rationale for Hamilton’s future, being an attractive city for today and tomorrow.” And Councilman Robert Brown added that the city is trying to keep from making the same mistake it made with Internet cafes several years ago.
Hamilton Mayor Pat Moeller said he needed to become more educated on the issues ahead of any statewide legislation in November and wanted to remind people that “this is a zoning issue that’s set for (Wednesday), this is not a public hearing for legalization.”
But even if Hamilton says no to marijuana sellers, if Middletown were to become home to a grow site, Brown said he could see some Hamilton residents driving out there to get their fix, so it may still affect his city.
“You already see people driving around with the windows pulled up and smoking cigarettes with two, three car seats in the back,” Brown said. “In my opinion, I could see the same thing happening with marijuana, and my heart goes out to those children.”
The proposed site in Middletown is currently owned by Trenton-based Magnode Corp. and has been on the market for five years, according to company officials. The company was approached by an unidentified buyer last month via a Columbus realty company. The buyer put a down payment on the property as part of an option agreement where the property was taken off the market for at least six months.
The two combined parcels, totalling 40 acres, are valued at $606,680 according to the Butler County Auditor’s Office.
Denise Hamet, the city’s economic development director, said she was unaware of any interest by anyone to purchase the land or an option. Some of the city’s prime industrial areas are located near the property, including the MADE Industrial Park, SunCoke and AK Steel.
“The proposed use would pull the site off the market for six months, reducing the supply of available land in a key development area,” Hamet said.
Many Middletown and Butler County residents were just finding out about the possibility of an indoor pot growing operation on Tuesday afternoon as news spread. Some people said they needed to learn more about the issue, but most said they did not support the constitutional amendment or the marijuana growing facility.
“Who wants that in their face,” said Margaret Jenkins, whose home sits across the road from the proposed Middletown site. “The neighborhood is going to be upset, and this is like putting a match under them.”
A Todhunter Road resident, who declined to be identified, called the grow facility “a bad idea considering how bad the drug problem is in Middletown.” He said he would consider selling his house if the ballot issue is approved by voters.
“I’m definitely voting it down,” he said. “My life is much too valuable, and it’s much too dangerous to have here.”
Irene Hunter, 81, of Liberty Twp., said she is concerned about any move to legalize marijuana in Ohio, and is especially against a grow site being approved in Middletown.
“All of the kids in our area started on that little bag of pot, and now they’re onto the big needle,” Hunter said. “I’ve been through living hell with my family because of marijuana. We’ve been threatened and robbed because of it; it’s right in our neighborhood and no one will do anything about it.”
Middletown Councilman Dan Picard said a marijuana growing facility would make it that much harder for the city to attract industrial development and the reputation it would bring to the city would be “outrageous.” He also called it “ridiculous how close it is to the Monroe schools.” The proposed site is about 1.5 miles from the Monroe Local Schools campus.
“I think its a horrible, terrible idea, and I hope this doesn’t pass or come to fruition,” Picard said. “It makes no sense to me.”
Naab, of Hamilton City Council, said he read with interest about “privately purchased parcels, statewide, for potential growing sites.” He said he “would suggest many opponents to these acquisitions will prevail in their not-in-my-backyard battle cry.”
He said he believed marijuana legalization in Ohio will be challenged and defeated, citing voters’ common sense of known addictions to tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, and that other states and jurisdictions who have legalized marijuana are now reassessing their laws and outcomes.
“Lobbyists for this plan, no matter how well funded, whether incorporating medical or recreational pitch for legalization, will not be successful in pursuit of initiating their beliefs in Ohio,” he said.
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