Recreational cannabis dispensaries will be able to operate in Uptown, Park Ridge City Council members have decided.
The City Council was split but passed a zoning amendment on a 4-2 vote at its Monday meeting to allow cannabis dispensaries to operate in the city’s central commercial district. The topic came up in the Council months prior, not because a cannabis dispensary applicant wished to set up shop in Uptown, but because the Council was considering changes to the city’s zoning code on where a dispensary could operate.
Before the vote, Police Chief Bob Kampwirth was asked if he had any safety concerns about a cannabis dispensary operating in Uptown. He said, “We’ve had no problems with what we have in town (Sociale, Park Ridge’s sole current dispensary), nor have I heard other towns through the other chiefs I’ve talked to have problems with their dispensaries.”
When the city council barred dispensaries from operating in Uptown in 2021, 1st Ward Ald. John Moran voiced his concern about the prospect of a dispensary operating there. “I understand there are teenagers all over Uptown in the summer, but I feel like the library serves almost like a school,” he said then. State law restricts dispensaries from opening shops within 100 feet of schools and parks.
“I don’t think it’s insane to treat the library in the same manner (as a school or park) because it does function in a way where it does attract a lot of kids,” Mayor Marty Maloney told Pioneer Press in his recently announced bid for re-election as Park Ridge mayor.
Before the City Council made its final decision on Monday, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended changing the city’s zoning code in July to permit a dispensary in Uptown. Commissioner John Hanlon said, “I can understand why, at one time, the City Council chose to go a different route and say, ‘Hey, maybe this isn’t the spot.’ There seems to be a stigma.”
Sociale cannabis dispensary in Park Ridge displays products for sale. The dispensary opened its doors for a soft launch on Aug. 22, 2023 on Higgins Road. (Pam DeFiglio, Chicago Tribune/Pioneer Press)
The city’s approval process for a dispensary to receive a special use permit to open its doors will, in general, stay the same, pending additional changes to the city’s zoning code that could increase distancing requirements for schools and parks from potential future dispensaries. Cannabis dispensary owners will have to continue to seek recommendations from the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council to get permits to open dispensaries.
