The drama surrounding a special-use permit for a second marijuana dispensary in Park Ridge took an unexpected turn at Monday night’s city council meeting. After rejecting the permit at a contentious meeting two weeks ago, the city council voted 4-2 on April 18 to allow the permit application to be resubmitted to the planning and zoning commission for further review. This action will most likely mean that the issue will come back to the city council for yet another vote in the months ahead, keeping alive the possibility of operating a cannabis dispensary at the location of the former Park Ridge VFW hall at 10 W. Higgins Rd.
The vote occurred after a letter was submitted to city council from the property owner and Bridge City Collective, which had planned to operate the dispensary, offering nine additional conditions of approval. Among the concessions was a willingness to pay an impact fee if “the operation of the dispensary causes the City to incur additional costs to provide police or other City services.”
Other concessions included greater traffic mitigation, monthly community meetings, enhanced security and a revised landscape buffer.
The vote to resubmit the matter to the planning and zoning commission was able to occur because of a city council rule stating that any member of the council who voted with the majority on an issue may make a motion to reconsider the vote in the next scheduled city council meeting.
“At the same meeting or at the immediately following regular meeting, the city council can make a motion to reconsider an act that it took at the previous meeting — in this case, it was a denial of a special-permit-use ordinance,” said City Attorney Julie Tappendorf. “Only an alderman on the prevailing side can make a motion and bring that ordinance back to the table.”
In this case, it was 6th Ward Ald. Richard Biagi, one of the four votes against the proposal on April 4, who made a motion to reconsider the vote. It was seconded by 1st Ward Ald. John Moran.
“You will not be voting on the ordinance tonight,” Tappendorf said. “This is just to reconsider to start the process over.”
“I respect procedures, and we are permitted tonight to technically have the procedure of reconsideration,” said 5th Ward Ald. Charlie Melidosian. “For me, though, reconsideration should be limited to things we got wrong, or feel we got it wrong, based on some information available to us to reconsider. I don’t see that tonight. This seems to be, (the applicant) lost a vote, and they come back with money and other things to sweeten the deal for the residents or the city. To me, that’s a slippery slope to go down.”
“There is nothing significantly different in what’s been discussed or proposed to warrant a reconsideration,” said Susan Kavathas-Annes, a Park Ridge resident and neighbor of the proposed dispensary, who was one of nine members of the public who spoke out against reconsideration. “Stick to what we said before.”
In the vote to resubmit the ordinance to the planning and zoning commission, Biagi, Moran, 2nd Ward Ald. Fred Sanchez and Mayor Marty Maloney voted in favor. Voting against were 3rd Ward Ald. Gail Wilkening and 5th Ward Ald. Charlie Melidosian. Not in attendance were 4th Ward Ald. Harmony Harrington and 7th Ward Alderman Marty Joyce.
The ordinance will be sent to the planning and zoning commission, which will hold another public hearing and then make a recommendation to the city council, Tappendorf said. She speculated that the matter may return to city council in the next six to eight weeks, although that depends on how quickly the planning and zoning commission can add the ordinance to its agenda.