Naperville Suggests Cap Of 3 Recreational Cannabis Dispensaries

NAPERVILLE, IL — In the ongoing debate about recreational pot in Naperville, the city council has made one thing clear: they're only interested in allowing dispensaries if recreational marijuana sales are permitted within city limits. During a workshop on the topic Monday night, the majority of council members nixed the inclusion of craft growers, transporters, infusion businesses and other facilities.

As far as dispensaries go, the city is proposing capping the limit of recreational dispensaries to three within the city.

The suggestions came during a nearly three-hour long workshop on the topic weighing such subjects as parking limitations for dispensaries and how far dispensaries should be from schools and day care centers. The council also discussed how close dispensaries could be from one another.

During the workshop, the city council was using the distance limitations for medical marijuana dispensaries as a guideline for how far recreational dispensaries should be from homes or day cares and schools. Currently, medical marijuana dispensaries are zoned to be no less than 250 feet from residential areas.

Some council members suggested making the distance from residential areas 1000 feet. Council member Hinterlong said, "The lines I see out of some of these [dispensaries] are longer than 250 feet."

Mayor Steve Chirico said, "If we were to make it 1,000 feet from any residential area, you could virtually wipe out every location" on the map presented to city council

"So that's another way of basically getting zero [recreational dispensaries]," Chirico said.

Chirico directed city staff to "increase [the distance of potential recreational dispensaries from residences] as much as you can practically, while still allowing there to be locations, so we don't essentially eliminate all [dispensary] locations."

The city's staff will draw up a map showing potential dispensary locations within zero, 250 feet and 1000 feet from residential areas.

Next up, the workshop feedback, along with these maps and other information, will be reviewed by the city's planning and zoning committees.

The issue of recreational marijuana sales in Naperville has been a polarizing one since the topic first came up for discussion last fall. In September, the City Council voted 6 to 3 to opt out of recreational marijuana sales.

In March, a referendum question about recreational marijuana sales in the city resulted in 53 percent saying they were in favor of recreational cannabis sales in Naperville.