Dean Olson
The State Journal-Register
With encouragement from two aldermen, the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended that the city add two business-zoning categories to the areas in which marijuana dispensaries could open after Jan. 1.
The commission voted 8-1 Wednesday night, with Silas Johnson the only dissenter, to add the B-1 and B-2 zoning categories as suggestions for the Springfield City Council to consider when it meets Nov. 19.
The council at that time could finalize a zoning map for recreational marijuana dispensaries, cultivation centers and other cannabis-related businesses that begin operating after Jan. 1, when the state for the first time will allow recreational use and sales of marijuana to adults 21 and older.
The two business zoning categories, if adopted by the council in final form, would expand on areas previously designated in Springfield for marijuana businesses under the state’s medical cannabis program.
The commission’s suggestions mirrored, and went slightly beyond, suggestions for a zoning map that were made last month by the city council for the city’s zoning review process.
The B-1 zoning, in particular, would make it easier for HCI Alternatives, the business operating the city’s existing medical marijuana dispensary at 628 E. Adams St., to open a proposed adult-use marijuana dispensary in the former Outback Steakhouse building at 3201 Horizon Drive on the city’s east side, next to Interstate 55, Dirksen Parkway and hotels that include the Crowne Plaza Springfield.
The former Outback Steakhouse building is in a B-1 zone. A majority on the council suggested the B-1 zoning be added, though the staff of the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission told the commission in a non-binding opinion that allowing cannabis businesses in B-1 zoning is “contrary to the intent of the zoning ordinance.”
The opinion also said: “If there is a desire by the city to allow these uses in commercial areas, versus just in the downtown or industrial areas, then the B-2 General Business Service District is more appropriate. However, if the desire is for the city to maintain the maximum buffer between these and other commercial uses, then the uses should not be allowed in the B-1 or B-2 zoning districts.”
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The state law that allows adult use and sales of marijuana gives existing medical marijuana businesses the right to be the first sellers of recreational marijuana in 2020.
In addition to selling recreational marijuana in the same space as their medical marijuana dispensaries, the law allows the businesses a second adult-use license for a site elsewhere in their regions as long as the second site complies with local zoning rules.
Besides the second HCI dispensary in Springfield, Stone said Maribis, a company that operates a medical marijuana dispensary in Grandview, could seek to open a recreational location in Springfield in addition to selling recreational marijuana at its Grandview site.
Along with those four recreational sales sites, the state’s adult-use marijuana law allows only one more recreational-sales license in the Sangamon-Menard County area by late March 2020, Stone said. It’s unlikely that any more dispensaries will open locally in the next three years, he said.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin asked the commission to recommend banning recreational sales in the downtown area where HCI operates. The commission declined his request.
McMenamin opposes marijuana sales in Springfield even though a majority on the city council indicated sales will be allowed.
“I think we need to protect our downtown,” McMenamin said. He added that he fears homeless people living downtown will get ahold of cannabis-infused edibles and “become high … and in their own world. I think we have enough problems downtown.”
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The city council has decided to impose a 3% local excise tax on marijuana sales and use the proceeds to fund police and fire pensions and economic development on the East Side.
The zoning map recommended by the commission this week would allow HCI to seek such approval for its downtown dispensary but not for the proposed East Side dispensary unless the city council tweaks the final map.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 