Pubdate: Tue, 06 May 2014 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2014 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Author: Deborah Ziff NORTHBROOK TO DISCUSS POT RULES On May 20, Northbrook will discuss at a public hearing where medical marijuana will be able to be sold or grown in the village. Northbrook is just the latest Illinois municipality to try to hammer out zoning regulations. Dozens of villages and cities, including Des Plaines, Deerfield, Glenview, Wilmette and Chicago, have considered or passed rules governing where cultivation centers and dispensaries can be located. At issue in Northbrook is whether the village needs to create zoning laws to limit where the facilities can be located. The discussion is in reaction to a state law that took effect Jan. 1 allowing medicinal use of marijuana. The state's four-year pilot program allows for 22 licensed cultivation centers and up to 60 dispensaries statewide. The public hearing in Northbrook will be held by the plan commission on May 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Northbrook Village Hall, 1225 Cedar Lane. At a Northbrook plan commission meeting on April 24, commission members learned about the state law and what surrounding communities are doing in regard to medical marijuana regulations. "It varies from community to community," said David Schoon, economic development coordinator and assistant director of development and planning services, in a later interview. "Some allow (distribution centers) in industrial areas; some don't allow them in industrial areas. Some allow them by right; some allow them by special permit." He added that discussion has "been mainly centered on distribution centers, because the cultivation center side is so limited." Under state law, cultivation centers cannot be within 2,500 feet of a school, day care or residential district. Dispensing centers cannot be located within 1,000 feet of a school or day care or in a residential district. That means there are very few locations in Northbrook that meet the distance requirements for cultivation centers, he said. One point of discussion is whether it is appropriate to put dispensaries in industrial areas. The village typically has discouraged retail uses there, according to a memo by Tom Poupard, director of development and planning services. "Currently, we don't allow purely retail establishments in an industrial district, which this would be," Schoon said. He added that retail businesses are allowed as an "accessory" to an industrial use. In Glenview, trustees voted to limit cultivation centers and dispensaries to industrial districts in January and the village passed rules requiring applicants to go through a special approval process known as "conditional use." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom