Bartlett to discuss regulation of recreational pot sales

Bartlett's village board will be among the first in the Northwest suburbs to discuss potential regulations to recreational marijuana businesses, taking up the issue at its committee of the whole meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, at village hall, 228 S. Main St.

Because the discussion will take place during a committee of the whole meeting, it cannot lead to any final action the same night. Village President Kevin Wallace said he believes that whatever consensus is reached Tuesday can be formalized at the next village board meeting.

Municipal governments in Illinois will have no authority to prohibit the recreational use of marijuana by those 21 and older after Jan. 1. But they will have two options to regulate sales - either by banning them altogether or by establishing an occupational tax of up to 3 percent on them.

While the Bartlett village board has yet to discuss its position, Wallace said he suspects the members are relatively conservative on this issue and will lean toward the most restrictive option.

No medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation centers exist in Bartlett, though village laws would allow them in certain areas with a special-use permit.

Such medical marijuana businesses would be restricted to land zoned as light industrial or in a general industry economic development area. But even there, dispensaries would have to be at least 1,500 feet - and cultivation centers at least 2,500 feet - from any school, day care center or property zoned for residential use.