PEORIA, Ill. – The Peoria City Council is no closer to deciding on changes to its recreational cannabis dispensary ordinance than it was when the changes were first introduced in late-August.
After deferring a vote on changes to their cannabis business ordinance at least three times, the council Tuesday night voted to defer again until their first meeting in February.
“Even though there’s been a lot of input provided by both the community and council with regard to this, there’s still a desire for a little bit more time, possibly a few additional tweaks,” said Mayor Rita Ali, prior to the vote. “One of those common things seems to be the number of dispensaries that we allow within the city.”
Some members on the council think any dispensaries in the city will eventually fail, while others are in favor of a cap.
“We all talked (when the city’s cannabis ordinances were first approved several years ago) about we would come back and talk about limits,” said Beth Jensen, At Large Council Member. “At that time when we allowed it, there was only the potential of three. I don’t know what the magic number is, but right here we could have up to twelve, and I think twelve may be too many.”
Twelve is based on the number of potential social equity applicants the state has improved, and includes the whole Bureau of Labor Statistics-defined area, not just Peoria proper.
Most residents said in both comments and a survey they did not want to see a cap on such businesses.
