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."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom