The Galesburg City Council voted 6-1 to approve sales of cannabis in specifically-zoned areas of town.
The lone dissenting vote was cast by Alderman Wayne Dennis of Ward 2. Dennis sought to discourage the new industry from taking root near residential areas.
Sales of legal, recreational cannabis begin in Illinois on Jan. 1. Statewide, adults 21 years and older who are residents of the state will be able to purchase up to 30 grams of the plant. Galesburg has levied a 3 percent tax on cannabis businesses that operate within its city limits.
As it now stands, pot entrepreneurs are allowed to conduct business in areas zoned General Business, B-2; B-3 in the downtown corridor; Light Industrial, M-1; and Heavy Industrial, M-2. Dispensaries, infusers, transporters and craft growers will conduct business in zones B-2 and B-3. Cultivation centers, dispensaries, infusers, craft growers, processors, transporters and cannabis-testing facilities are relegated to the industrial zones.
Refinements are still being made to how terms in this nascent industry are defined.
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