Naperville City Council members voted late Tuesday night to prohibit sales of recreational marijuana, but also expressed support for a plan to let voters revisit the topic with a future ballot question.
Council members voted 6-3 to ban all types of recreational marijuana businesses and to ask staff members to develop the language of a referendum question, which they can consider putting on a later ballot.
Mayor Steve Chirico and council members Theresa Sullivan and Judith Brodhead voted against the decision.
Several council members said the marijuana issue became hotly controversial during the past few months, so preventing recreational sales for now will allow for healing from division.
”For the culture of Naperville to go back to being Naperville, I will opt out,” council member John Krummen said.
The city’s new ordinance banning recreational marijuana sales is based on a model prepared by the Illinois Municipal League. It prohibits all cannabis-related businesses, other than those operating under the state’s medical cannabis law.
3C Compassionate Care Center, a medical marijuana dispensary on Quincy Avenue, will be allowed to continue its medical operation, but is not permitted to sell the drug for recreational use at its Naperville shop or any other site in town.
The business recently was granted one of the first recreational dispensary licenses from the state, but state regulations say businesses must follow all municipal zoning rules and other local laws.
The vote to opt out came after the council listened to 238 speakers who signed up to share their views during a roughly four-hour discussion. The majority of speakers asked the council to prohibit recreational sales.
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