Journal & Topics Media Group

Village Board Officials Struggle With Cannabis Advertising


Mount Prospect trustees struggled with the possibility of seeing cannabis advertising at the Tuesday (Oct. 8) joint village board and planning and zoning commission meeting during discussion on whether or not the village should allow recreational sales of cannabis.

If the village should opt-in and allow the sale of recreational cannabis, Assistant Village Manager Nellie Beckner gave a presentation of the draft ordinance laying out what would happen.

General regulations would include changes to chapter 11 (merchants, business, occupations and amusements) such as defining each cannabis business type, such as a dispensary, craft grower, infuser, cannabis lounge and social space.

The village would also reiterate Illinois House Bill 1438 (Cannabis Act) for things that pertain specifically to the village, advertising being one of them.

Trustee Richard Rogers said, “I would like to see that strengthened, so that no advertising period, anywhere within the village limits would be applicable to this ordinance.”

Beckner said that the village could not prohibit a business from hanging a sign on their building.

“There’s things that we can do… We try not to review signs based on content, which is what does the actual sign read and say,” Beckner said. “There’s some first amendment rights that the business has, so we can definitely restrict how much signage, where it is located on the building. That kind of stuff we can do.”

The Cannabis Act has restrictions on recreational cannabis advertising such as explicitly prohibiting “any image designed or likely to appeal to minors, including cartoons, toys, animals, or children or any imitation of candy packaging or labeling, or any other likeness to images, characters, or phrases that are designed in any manner to be appealing or encourage consumption under 21 years of age.”

Other advertising regulations include prohibiting an image of consuming any cannabis products, showing an image of the cannabis leaf or bud or making health, medical or therapeutic claims about cannabis or cannabis-infused products.

Additionally, any advertising for cannabis cannot be on a public transit vehicle, public transit shelter or publicly owned or operated property. Nor can this advertising be within 1,000 feet of the perimeter of school grounds, playgrounds, recreation centers or facilities, child care centers, public parks, public libraries or arcades which allow minors inside.

Trustee Rogers said, “There is a billboard advertising cannabis on River Road in the area called Mudville, which is unincorporated Cook County, but it’s probably four blocks away from the current dispensary. How do we regulate something like that?”

“We can’t regulate that because it’s not in the village,” Beckner said to Trustee Rogers.

“Why can’t we eliminate any advertising by the dispensary and it doesn’t matter where it is,” Rogers asked.

“That’s going to get challenged very quickly,” Mayor Juracek said.

Trustee Rogers then inquired about signs in business windows. “We do allow signs in the window. For instance, bananas 49 cents, this week only.”

Beckner added that with the conditional use zoning, the planning and zoning commission along with the village board, would be able to place certain restrictions such as blacking out the windows, putting up a fence, adding landscaping, amongst other things, before approving the business.

Should the village opt-in, cannabis establishments such as retail dispensaries, would only be permitted conditional use in B-3 (Community Shopping District) or I-1 (Limited Industrial District) zoning districts. Other cannabis business types such as infusers or craft growers, would only be permitted conditional use in the I-1 zoning district.

The draft opt-in ordinance reflects the village’s alcohol zoning; a recreational cannabis business would not be allowed 100 feet near a public or private school, place of worship or hospital. Furthermore, the dispensary could not be located 1,500 feet from another cannabis business.

No decision was made at the Tuesday (Oct. 8) meeting as it was an informal discussion. However, the board is split down the middle of where they stand.

 

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