Marijuana in DeKalb

The City of DeKalb Planning & Zoning Commission met Wednesday evening to addressed the future issues of medical and recreational marijuana.

DeKalb County is one of the counties that will have an option for three recreational licenses that may be available. The City of DeKalb does not yet have a guarantee that it would be issued a license. The northern area of Illinois including Chicago will have the chance at 47 of the 75 permits first to be issued.

There are still issues for local people to understand recreational licenses, medical marijuana dispensaries, and marijuana growing centers. In DeKalb, a medical marijuana dispensary permit has been tentatively issued to a location on Peace Road. In recent conversations in DeKalb City Hall, there are concerns for locations of both medical and recreational locations. There has been push back to not have a location near the NIU campus or in the downtown area.

Local businessman Don Hawkins, owner of Competitive Edge, feels there are too many challenges on the types and locations of marijuana dispensaries (medical and recreational) and growing centers. His location is within 100 feet of what may be a  medical marijuana dispensary, which would not fall within the current guideline. He feels that DeKalb County is a farming center and he would like to become a grower. Hawkins’s location would be small compared to other State of Illinois growers’ size. Pharmacannis Marijuana Growers, located in Ogle County, has four buildings, each nearly the size of a football field

The regulations were approved by the commission, 4 to 1. Zoning Board Commissioner Klein the only ‘no’ vote. The next step will be the information and approved regulations to go before the DeKalb City Council to be voted on.