SALEM –Zoning won’t be changed to accommodate a proposed medical marijuana cultivation site at South Broadway and East Perry Street, effectively killing plans by Geoff Korff to locate a growing facility in the city.

The president of Quaker City Castings said now he’ll be looking at other cities that have already rezoned areas to welcome medical marijuana businesses, noting there are plenty of sites to consider, including in Akron. When asked why not just go out of town in a township with no zoning, he commented “I want to go somewhere that I’m wanted,” indicating a desire to locate in a municipality that has planned for these types of businesses.

City council members sat silent Monday night when asked by Committee of the Whole Chairman Councilman Brian Whitehill if there was a motion to forward a draft ordinance to city council regarding the zoning. When Whitehill started to ask if there was an interest in discussing a moratorium on one or all types of medical marijuana operations, Councilman Geoff Goll moved for the meeting to be adjourned, which was then seconded by Councilwoman Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey, with all agreeing to adjourn the meeting.

Both Korff and Whitehill confirmed that the proposal for locating the facility in Salem was dead, with Korff acknowledging he had plenty of conversations with city officials leading up to this meeting and his previous presentation before the Rules & Ordinances Committee. He said he was under the inpression there was support for what he was doing.

“I am disappointed it didn’t go differently,” he said.

Whitehill said the topic was whether or not to change the zoning to specifically allow this type of operation in an industrial area. The Rules & Ordinances Committee chaired by Dickey had forwarded the issue to the Committee of the Whole comprised of all seven council members. The proposed verbage of a draft ordinance to add to the list of permitted uses in M-1 light industrial or M-2 industrial would have stated that “medical marijuana cultivators and processors operating and conforming with all Ohio laws and local ordinances are permitted.”

According to Whitehill, the next logical meeting for Committee of the Whole would be to discuss the merits of whether to limit or ban portions of medical marijuana facilities, which could include cultivation sites, processing sites or dispensaries where the products would be sold to patients with a prescription. He said he’ll survey the council members about having a meeting to discuss the issue.

“We can’t debate the Ohio law. What we can do is control whether we want it in our community,” Whitehill said.

During discussion about Korff’s proposal and what council would need to do, Planning & Zoning Officer Chip Hank explained that city council after a first reading would send the zoning change to the city Planning Commission, then the commission would have to wait 30 days before coming up with a recommendation. If the commission didn’t answer in 60 days, then it would be the same as if they made a recommendation, then council would need to have second and third readings for approval. If not done as an emergency, there would be another 30 days before it would take effect.

Korff spoke up that his deadline for submitting his application for one of 12 available Class 2 permits being issued by the state for medical marijuana cultivation was June 16, saying he needed to be able to show that his site had approved zoning. Goll then spoke up about the possible timeline for council to act and the fact that the timing wouldn’t be enough to meet the deadline.

Korff formed a company called Galenas LLC to seek a Level 2 license for dedication of 3,000 square feet of space for medical marijuana cultivation. The plan was to locate at 884 S. Broadway Ave., a parcel adjacent to Quaker City Castings large enough to allow for expansion of up to 9,000 square feet of cultivation space if the state expanded the program. He explained that he would serve as president and already had a director of operations, a director of cultivation and a board of advisors in place, along with plans for how the company would operate, right down to the security. Plans had been to keep the grow space on the second floor where it could not be seen, with a carbon filtration system to keep odors from escaping the brick structure and a sallyport system for trucks to enter and exit the locked building.

Council members asked all types of questions about everything from the potency of the product to the security of the facility and the trucks, which would be armored vehicles, and how any fumes from the plant would affect the police department’s K-9 units who are trained to sniff out the odor of drugs. Councilman Roy Paparodis asked several questions dealing with the level of THC, which is defined as the chemical compound in cannibis responsible for the high. Korff said the plan was to grow nine different strains to start, with varying content of THC, to accommodate treatments for various illnesses which benefit from medical marijuana.

He had stressed that the plan was to seek a license strictly for cultivation, but was asked about processing, noting that would require a separate license from the state and he would come before council again, but based on feedback, he wouldn’t try that in Salem. Also speaking was Jonathan Lee, president and CEO of Signature Health, the largest opiate treatment provider in the state, who was going to serve on the advisory board for the facility. He answered several questions from council members about whether marijuana was a gateway drug to heroin and cocaine. He said it happens but depends on the age of the user.

Eloise Traina, director of the Family Recovery Center in Lisbon which serves Columbiana County and Jefferson County, also spoke and expressed two main concerns: that the majority of their clients started with marijuana as a gateway drug and that there were concerns for employers in the area of operating a drug-free workplace. She had sent a detailed letter to Mayor John Berlin and members of council, as did Columbiana County Sheriff Ray Stone who expressed his opposition to the idea of a medical marijuana cultivation facility in the city. He urged the adoption of legislation prohibiting marijuana facilities of any kind in Salem and any other community in the county. Both Columbiana and Leetonia passed such legislation.

Korff said he understood concerns about drugs, but he also pointed out that the black market for marijuana will shrink, saying that revenue will be taken away from drug dealers and a lot of sick people will benefit from the medical marijuana. If it doesn’t happen in Salem, it will happen elsewhere in the state since the legislature approved it. He said the question was whether or not the city wanted to benefit from it. Previously, he reported an initial budget of $640,000 to prepare the facility, with plans to hire nine employees with salaries starting at $50,000 per year.

In other business, the committee also took no action on a proposal to send a letter in opposition to the governor’s proposed municipal income tax changes. There was no discussion, except for a comment from city Income Tax Administrator Fred Pamer that he was only trying to make council aware of what was happening at the state level.