Buying or selling a cannabis business in Columbus, Ohio

What Columbus zoning says about dispensaries

Columbus treats a licensed dispensary much like any other shop. Ordinance 0162-2025, passed by council on 10 February 2025 and signed on 12 February, rewrote the city’s cannabis zoning after Issue 2. It added definitions for Ohio Division of Cannabis Control licensed facilities to the definitions chapter, made the uses permitted in named districts, and repealed the special permit sections. The city’s stated reason was that the Division of Cannabis Control already regulates these uses and publishes their locations, so a second local permit was redundant.

What the repeal removed matters to anyone valuing an older store. Former section 3389.151, dating from Ordinance 3023-2018, required a Board of Zoning Adjustment special permit, 500 feet between dispensaries, mailed notice within 250 feet and a presentation to the area commission. None of that applies now.

Which districts allow a dispensary?

Columbus runs two zoning codes side by side: Title 33, the legacy code, and Title 34, the 2024 Zoning Code produced by the Zone In rewrite and most recently updated by Ordinance 1579-2025, effective 30 July 2025. Which one applies depends on how the parcel is mapped.

Code	Dispensary allowed by right	Not allowed
Title 33	C-4 regional scale commercial, under section 3356.03	districts that do not list it
Title 34, Table E.20.100.A	UGN-1, UCT, UCR, CAC, RAC	UGN-2, UCR-R

Cultivators and processors are permitted in the M, M-1 and M-2 manufacturing districts, and testing labs in C-2, under the same 2025 ordinance. Neither the 2025 ordinance nor the Title 34 use table adds a local buffer, cap, hours limit or cannabis-specific permit for dispensaries. We found no separate city cannabis business licence; the local sign-off is ordinary zoning clearance and building approvals for the use. For a buyer, that means the city file is simple. The constraints are state ones.

Spacing under SB 56

Senate Bill 56 took effect on 20 March 2026 and requires a mile between dispensaries and 500 feet from schools, playgrounds and churches, inside a statewide cap of 400 stores. With the city’s own 500-foot rule gone, the state mile is the only spacing that protects a Columbus store. Two practical effects:

1. An operating store has a protected radius that supports value.
2. The store cannot easily move. A relocation needs a parcel that clears the state buffers and sits in a district that lists the use, and it needs state approval. See relocating a licence and landlord consent and cannabis lease clauses.

The suburban moratorium ring

Ohio State’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center tracks 198 active local moratoriums as of 28 August 2026, covering roughly 19% of Ohio’s population. Around Columbus:

Jurisdiction	Moratorium	From
Dublin	Indefinite	20 May 2024
Canal Winchester	Indefinite	7 May 2024
Blendon Township	Indefinite	18 June 2024
New Albany	Indefinite	6 August 2024
Worthington	203 days, expired 7 January 2025	18 June 2024

Demand from a closed suburb does not disappear; it drives to the nearest store that can exist, which often means Columbus. Test how much revenue depends on a moratorium that could be lifted. The framework is on local control and municipal approvals.

Ownership changes and taxes

The Division of Cannabis Control, not the city, approves owners. Its ownership guidance requires prior written approval for changes above a 10% interest in aggregate across a calendar year under OAC 1301:18-3-06, and the Division’s change of ownership application carries a $1,000 fee. The older medical-program fee rule, OAC 3796:6-5-01, is no longer published in the Ohio Administrative Code. Because the zoning use is by right, a sale reopens no city permit. The wider rules are on the Ohio page.

Columbus levies no cannabis tax of its own; Ohio’s 10% adult-use tax and sales tax apply.

Hemp litigation in Franklin County

In April 2026 a Franklin County judge temporarily blocked SB 56’s intoxicating hemp restrictions for two businesses. A Columbus hemp retail or beverage buyer is pricing that litigation plus the federal changes landing on 12 November and 11 December 2026; see intoxicating hemp products: regulatory status.

Market conditions and practical points

Ohio recorded about $685 million of combined sales through 11 July 2026, on pace to pass the $1.09 billion sold in 2025, across 223 dual-use dispensaries.

Sellers. Map the one-mile radius and the moratorium communities in your drive time. Buyers. Confirm which code and district govern the parcel, check the radius against provisional licences as well as open stores, and value with dispensary valuation multiples.

This page is general education, not legal or tax advice.