Pot firms race to get city OK for 7 potential dispensaries - but only 3 will ever open

Call it a weed war.

Cannabis firms seeking local approval to open recreational pot shops at seven locations will take part in a special meeting Friday of the Zoning Board of Appeals - though only three will be allowed to sell weed.

That's because six of those addresses are clustered within a pair of hot retail corridors in River North and Goose Island, so close together that they run afoul of state law that requires dispensaries be separated by at least 1,500 feet.

Even if all six earn the required special-use zoning permit at Friday's meeting, most will be left high and dry by state regulators. In that case, two licenses would be granted to the first store in each cannabis district to pass a state inspection when they're ready to open.

As those candidates jockey for position, the seventh applicant - Nature's Care - now has a clearer path to earning a license after its competitor in Fulton Market was bucked from the running for holding a required community meeting in the wrong ward. That marked the second participant to be stricken from the agenda in the lead-up to the first-of-its-kind meeting.

The biggest battle is now playing out in River North, where four companies are vying for a single state license.

Cresco Labs wants to move into a building at 436 N. Clark that previously housed the Baton Show Lounge; The Greenhouse Group has applied to sell weed at the site of an old Carson's Ribs restaurant at 612 N. Wells; PharmaCann hopes to open at 444 N. LaSalle; and MOCA plans to set up shop at 214-232 W. Ohio.

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