Romeoville Village Board Approves Commercial Cannabis Zoning

ROMEOVILLE, IL — There was no fuss. There were no passionate speeches. There was barely even a debate before the Romeoville Village Board voted unanimously to approve zoning for the commercial sale of recreational cannabis within town borders. Only one resident even showed up to advocate commercial sales, and none came to offer opposition.

"Not a soul," Trustee Ken Griffin said.

The utter lack of drama surrounding the vote stands in stark contrast to nearby towns like Naperville, Plainfield and Oswego, where dedicated anti-cannabis camps either swung their respective boards to vote "no" on commercial sales or at least held up the vote in debate for an hour or two.

Trustees Griffin and Linda Palmiter mused that the town may have been inoculated against anti-cannabis reaction by Verilife, a medical marijuana dispensary that has already been operating in Romeoville since 2016. Verilife staff told Patch late last week that the dispensary would begin selling recreational marijuana after January 1, pending the result of the village board vote.

"I don't think people even know [Verilife] is there," Palmiter said, referring to the dispensary's tucked-away location in an industrial park at 1335 Lakeside Drive. "I've known some people that have used it and really benefited."

The details involved in commercial cannabis sales, such as exact dispensary locations and the tax rate on recreational marijuana products, were not discussed at the meeting. According to Assistant Village Manager Dawn Caldwell, the tax rate on all recreational cannabis products had already been decided at 3% at a previous board meeting in September. Tonight's meeting was merely the final approval for commercial cannabis zoning.

"The only thing I'm worried about is where we're going to put [new dispensaries]," she said. "I just don't want it next to a Dairy Queen."

Correction: This story initially said the board did not set a recreational cannabis product tax rate, and would not do so until January. The village board actually already decided the tax rate on recreational cannabis products in a previous, September meeting. This story was corrected at 10:29 p.m.