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Lake Barrington sets limits on medical marijuana dispensaries

The Lake Barrington village board this week voted to limit the location of any potential medical marijuana cultivation and distribution centers to a small industrial portion of town.

The state medical marijuana law does not allow municipalities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but gives them authority to regulate their location from a zoning standpoint, Lake Barrington Village Attorney James Bateman said.

“Since we can't prohibit them all together, this will provide that they could only be located in (a light industrial zone),” Bateman said.

Under the measure passed this week, dispensaries will be limited to the industrially zoned area in the southern part of the village, along Northwest Highway.

Lake Barrington Village Administrator Chris Martin said the board decided that the village's small industrial park was the most appropriate place for potential medical marijuana facilities, but added that there are no current proposals pending.

The ordinance also requires anyone looking to establish medical marijuana facilities to apply for a special use permit. As part of that process, applicants must seek community feedback for their proposal at a public meeting and ultimately get approval from the village board.

The village of Barrington passed a similar ordinance in August 2013, Village Manager Jeff Lawler said.

“It gives clear direction,” Lawler said.

The state's medical marijuana law, titled the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, prohibits cannabis dispensaries from being within 2,500 feet of a school. Cannabis cultivation centers, the facilities that would grow the medical marijuana, are even more strictly regulated.

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