Aurora City Council on Nov. 11 extended its year-long moratorium on vape, e-cigarette, smoke and tobacco shops and on shops that sell any product related to CBD, cannabis oils or edibles for another 90 days.
Aurora first enacted a 12-month ban on accepting filings and on considering, reviewing and approving new applications for marijuana-related activities within city limits on Nov. 20, 2023.
At that time, Law Director Dean DePiero said city leaders wanted to see what state officials would do and needed time to investigate how other communities were handling the state’s 2023 law legalizing recreational marijuana.
Now, Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin said, “We have a zoning consultant working on updating several parts of our code, and because of the legalization of cannabis that occurred recently, that’s one of the areas the consultant’s looking at, and they’re not finished yet.”
The consultant, ZoneCo LLC, is tasked with evaluating, updating, rewriting and modernizing the city’s zoning code and subdivision regulations. Council on Nov. 11 approved a $98,330 contract with the company, with Womer Benjamin saying the update is meant to eliminate contradictions, improve clarity and create a code consistent with current laws.
Aurora’s zoning code hasn’t been updated for almost 25 years, she said.
Council also approved $1.25 million for Perrin Asphalt to pave phase one of Aurora Trail, which will stretch 2.8 miles from Chamberlain Road to state Route 82.
The 10-foot-wide hike-and-bike trail is sited along the former Norfolk Southern Railway property. It will run adjacent to other park properties, including Aurora’s Paddock River Preserve and Spring Hill. One section will be adjacent to Aurora Sanctuary, a state sanctuary owned by the Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland.
Formerly owned by Norfolk Southern, the right of way the hike-and-bike trail will occupy is owned by FirstEnergy. The land itself bisects Aurora. After years of litigation against the energy corporation, which wanted to build transmission towers in the right of way, city leaders ended up with a permanent recreational easement along the former railroad corridor.
Council also approved:
- $62,308 to enlarge the men’s locker room at the Aurora police station and add lockers.
- $31,025 for restoration work at a home on Sweet Grass Circle, where a contractor the city hired to install backflow preventers as part of Aurora’s stormwater management project installed one incorrectly. The home ended up having a backup problem, leaving the city to correct it, Womer Benjamin said.
- Almost $4,000 for C&J Contractors to handle asbestos abatement and demolition of FEMA properties within the city’s Geauga Lake neighborhood. The neighborhood is across from Geauga Lake and is not part of the city’s recently acquired park land.
- City leaders continue to eye a five-year, $150,000-a-year contract with LTech Solutions Ltd., which manages all of Aurora’s IT and telecommunications, to continue providing information technology consulting services. Council is expected to hold the final vote on that contract during its Nov. 25 session.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.