WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio — West Chester Township. has become the latest Butler County community to extend its moratorium on businesses related to recreational marijuana use.

Administrators agreed Tuesday to extend the moratorium on the cultivation, processing and retail sale of adult-use cannabis by 180 days. It extends the 360-day moratorium first imposed last December.

“We just want it to break — make sure all our T’s are crossed and I’m dotted,” said administrator Mark Welch. “There are also some changes, some updates that we need to make to our zoning to ensure that if a dispensary came to West Chester, it would be in the right location.”

Welch said this was the last moratorium on the issue that he would support.

“If we fail to act together in 180 days, I will not extend this moratorium any further,” Welch said. “People stood up a year ago and said ‘we want it (legal recreational marijuana for adults). And in fact, 54 percent of West Chester residents voted for recreational marijuana.

Zoning issues to be resolved include the location of dispensaries and other related businesses, the number of dispensaries that would be permitted and whether such businesses should be allowed in the township.

Earlier this month, Liberty Township also voted to extend its moratorium for another six months, citing uncertainty in the regulations and their impact on the community.

But in September, the Fairfield City Council decided not to extend its moratorium after approving zoning changes to its code. Only one business could be located in the city – in the Ohio 4 corridor – to distribute medical and recreational marijuana.

A medical marijuana dispensary opened in Oxford in early 2023 and a second was granted provisional recreational licenses from the state.

Two companies have submitted applications to open dispensaries in Middletown. Hamilton voted last June to maintain its moratorium indefinitely.

Ohio became the 24th state to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana in the November 7, 2023 election. Medical marijuana use became legal in Ohio in 2016.