Carpentersville approves medical pot rules

The Carpentersville village board unanimously signed off on new rules for medical marijuana facilities Tuesday night that will make it harder for them to set up in the village.

The village's new rules limit medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers to industrial areas, and they force the people behind them to seek a special use permit to operate.

Medical marijuana dispensaries also cannot sit within 1,000 feet of a school, day care or child care facility, nor can they operate from within a dwelling unit or in residential areas.

Cultivation centers must be more than 2,500 feet away from schools, child care facilities and residential areas.

An official has said those guidelines make it difficult for a cultivation center to come to Carpentersville.

It took the village board less than two minutes to approve the new legislation. Trustee Paul Humpfer arrived after the vote, and Trustee Ginger Stephens did not attend the meeting due to a recent injury.

A pair of groups interested in setting up a medical marijuana enterprise already have identified the village as a possible location, Village President Ed Ritter said.

Trustee Pat Schultz said the board realized it can't stop a medical marijuana enterprise from coming, but trustees can decide where it should go.

"We knew when they came knocking - and they did - that there was nothing we could do about it," Schultz said after the vote. "They wanted to be on Main Street USA. And we said no ... we've got an image issue we're working on for years and years and years."

Tuesday's action came two months after the village board was originally supposed to take the same vote. Back then, several trustees, including Schultz, Humpfer and Kay Teeter hesitated, saying they didn't have enough information to decide and expressing concern over what the vote for restrictions could mean for the village's image.