RIVERSIDE, Ohio (WDTN) – Riverside City Council members approved plans for a medical marijuana grow facility in a 4 to 2 vote Thursday, with the Mayor voting in favor of the plant.
About a half a dozen people took to the podium to express their opinions on the plant. The group who spoke were evenly split on people for and against the plant.
The city voted to approve the option to sell 3 acres of land to Farm of Riverside, LLC, which is the company who plans to build the facility and operate it.
The 25,000 square foot proposed facility would employ about 50 people with an average yearly salary of $45,000. The facility would sit near the intersection of Huberville Avenue and Esther Avenue off Harshman Road. It would be a mile down the road from the National Air Force Museum.
One council member spoke on behalf of the museum, saying they don’t want the city to move forward with plans for the marijuana plant.
“No resident has the right to determine,” Jan Pitzer said. “What business comes into this city just as they have no right to who moves in next door to them.”
“I don’t have a problem with medical marijuana,” Crystal Farris said. “I have a problem with you placing the building on the land where you are for that purpose with large fences. It doesn’t fit in our small community.”
The sale will be contingent on Farms of Riverside LLC obtaining a license from the State of Ohio to be one of the 24 cultivators in the state come November. Council members will revisit the issue in two weeks when they have a second reading on the resolution.
