Tinley Park Likely To Support Recreational Marijuana Sales

TINLEY PARK, IL — Tinley Park's trustees indicated this week that they may support bringing recreational marijuana businesses to the village, and if they do, limits will apply.

Board members indicated they would support permitting dispensaries but not lounges to Tinley Park, and the number of them would be limited to a count "less than one hand," trustee Michael Mueller said.

"I could go either way," Mayor Jacob Vandenberg said to the board Tuesday night. "There are arguments in the positive and the negative and I think everything you've said...if the board were to consider this, these are absolutely the right ideas to move forward. I think you guys are on a good path. A good direction."

He and several staff members said medicinal dispensaries, which under the new law will be permitted retail sales, have already approached Tinley Park about the potential to operate inside village boundaries.

No action was taken. The comments were made at a committee meeting designed to permit the full board to discuss the issue as a group.

The new Illinois recreational cannabis law permits marijuana to be sold to anyone over the age of 21 and consumed in private homes and businesses in January. Marijuana will be available over the counter to more than 12 million people in Illinois, and will be taxed at a sliding scale, depending on the level of the active psychoactive ingredient THC in the product sold. Limitations apply on how much can be consumed, who can consume it, and where it can be consumed. The law also prohibits possessing cannabis near a school bus, a school, a correctional facility or in a vehicle if it's not "reasonably secured" and "reasonably inaccessible" while moving, or in a home used for child or social service care.

Read: Illinois Legal Weed: Who Can Buy, Sell, Use Marijuana Next Year?

During the meeting, village attorney Patrick Connolly advised board members that if they are amenable to permitting recreational marijuana facilities to Tinley, now is the time to start thinking about zoning, taxation and other ordinances. Tinley can opt out of permitting, but if officials want to generate tax revenue, he said, officials will have to create conditions for businesses to operate in way that is acceptable to the village.

Trustees said they wanted to mindful about placing retail or medical dispensaries within village boundaries. A strip mall near residential areas, for example, could be "tacky," trustee Michael Glotz said.

Planning staff indicated major thoroughfares, such as Harlem Avenue and 159th Street could be good options, provided they conformed to new state statues.

However, board members said they needed more information before they could move forward, including maps of ideal locations, lists of who is considering applying to Tinley, and drafts of tax revenue estimates.

The board's next steps were not clear, although Vandenberg said staff would come back with the information trustees requested. Connolly advised the board that if they wanted to be prepared to accept new business by January, the board would have to act fast to put new ordinances or regulations in place.