Wauconda may delay rules for medical marijuana businesses
Entrepreneurs looking to open medical marijuana growing centers or dispensaries in Wauconda may have to wait until at least May.
Wauconda trustees are considering enacting a 120-day moratorium on the establishment of such businesses in town.
The delay is being weighed because a state group studying the issue hasn’t yet published administrative guidelines for marijuana operations, which are allowed under state law starting Jan. 1.
The guidelines — seen as a template for local communities — are expected in April 2014, according to a village memo.
Adopting a version of those model rules will help the local towns be consistent, officials said.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” village attorney Rudy Magna said Tuesday night during a committee-of-the-whole discussion of the issue.
Under the state law, which was enacted earlier this year, villages and cities will be allowed to regulate where marijuana dispensaries and growing operations can set up.
Any rules must be reasonable, however. Outright bans are not allowed.
“We have to deal with it,” Magna said.
In Wauconda, a 90-day moratorium originally was proposed during a committee meeting earlier this month. The longer proposal surfaced Tuesday.
If approved by the full board Dec. 3, Wauconda’s moratorium would begin Jan. 1.
“This should give us time to do what we need to do,” Mayor Frank Bart said.
Other suburbs have adopted zoning rules for medical marijuana facilities.
Earlier this month, Bartlett officials passed an ordinance that essentially limits businesses to a single business park. Wheaton officials are prepared to limit marijuana facilities to a manufacturing district.