More Top Picks Adhd Reading Comprehension Strategies That Work
player ready...Batavia unanimously voted Monday to support an application for a license to build a medical marijuana cultivation center on the industrial side of the city.
PharMar Farms LLC is applying to the state for one of 22 licenses that will be awarded this year and asked the city for a letter of support for the facility planned at 1375 Paramount Parkway.
The council voted 11-0 to back Mayor Jeffery Schielke’s letter.
“Based upon our relationship with and experience of the principal officers and our understanding of the quality of the cannabis cultivation center that PharMar Farms LLC plans to install and operate at the Paramount Parkway location, we believe that the presence of the cannabis cultivation center will have no detrimental impact upon our community,” the letter read.
The licenses will be issued under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Project Act, which took effect on Jan. 1. The Department of Agriculture will issue licenses for up to 22 cultivation centers and 60 dispensaries. Users will have to pass a background check and have a doctor’s referral for certain diseases before being allowed to purchase 2.5 ounces every two weeks.
Schielke said that before voicing public support, he investigated the company and talked to local doctors and patients who said medical marijuana could benefit them.
There’s a “human side” to this,” he said.
There’s also the benefit of filling a vacancy in the industrial park, and adding jobs and another utility user, Schielke said.
Ald. Susan Stark said that estimates show that PharMar Farms would use $300,000 in energy a year.
“It’s just another business on Paramount that you would probably drive by and never know what was in it,” Stark said.
No one spoke in opposition, but there’s been a more mixed reaction in other area communities. Palatine officials, for example, rejected an application for a medical dispensary, according to news reports.
Schielke stressed that it’s a long shot that there will actually be a cultivation center in Batavia. The state is licensing one for each state police district. Batavia is in District 2, which includes Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and DeKalb counties, so there could be significant competition for the license, he said.
Applicants have to submit complete business plans, along with a nonrefundable $25,000 application fee, by Sept. 22, according to the state’s website. If a company is awarded the license, it will have to pay a $200,000 permit fee.