Would-be developer pulls Richmond marijuana dispensary request after concerns about location

A proposal to put a recreational marijuana dispensary in Richmond was put on hold Monday evening when the developer pulled his request to the village’s Plan Commission.

“I have to do my due diligence on the location,” Zachary Zises, owner of 280E LLC, said after announcing his decision.

Zises was seeking the Plan Commission’s approval for a special use permit and zoning map amendments so he could open a marijuana dispensary at 5500 Swallow Ridge Drive.

But after a community question-and-answer session Thursday, he decided the proposed location, where Route 12, Swallow Ridge Drive and Burlington Road intersect, was not the right location for the business.

At the Thursday meeting, residents overwhelmingly said they wanted a dispensary in Richmond but the proposed site would lead to severe traffic issues. The adjacent subdivision would have to share its only entrance and exit with dispensary customers at an intersection that already sees backups at peak travel times.

Zises still wants to bring a dispensary in the village but wants a location that would work for the residents as well, he said after the meeting.

“I hope when I come back to the village as soon as possible, you guys will be amendable to what I figure out,” Zises told the Plan Commission.

Village President Toni Wardanian said after the meeting that she and Zises remain in contact and are working to find a location in Richmond.

“We want him to succeed and have a win, win, win” for the business, for residents and for the village, Wardanian said.

She said she thinks Zises and 280E LLC will work with village leaders to find a site that will work.

“He likes our enthusiasm and that we didn’t tell him ‘no’ off the bat,” Wardanian said. “This isn’t the end. He is married to Richmond, but he is dating a location,” she said.

Despite Zises’s decision to pull his application, the plan commissioners decided to still discuss – and vote on – two amendments to village ordinances.

One would change the number of allowed marijuana dispensaries from two to one and increase the local sales tax to 3% for the dispensary, rather than 1.5% for two. That proposal received the Plan Commission’s recommendation.

The Plan Commission also was set to discuss a change to village code to allow dispensaries to sit 250 feet from a residence. The amendment was sent to the Village Board without a recommendation from the Plan Commission.

Motions to table the 250-foot setback to a future meeting, change it to 1,000 feet from an educational institution and 250 feet from a home or place the same setbacks on a dispensary as are required by a liquor licensee failed in tie votes. Without a final motion to approve the amendment, it was sent to the Village Board without comment.

The 250-foot setback seemed like an arbitrary number, resident Corey Weinfurtner said during the public hearing on the ordinance changes. It felt like the village was attempting to change the rules to benefit one business without taking into account the needs of its residents.

The 250-foot setback was determined by looking at available properties in Richmond where a dispensary could sit, Wardanian said.

“It fit a lot of parcels,” Wardanian said.

Weinfurtner was one of about 100 members of the public to attend the meeting, which was moved to Richmond-Burton Community High School to accommodate the crowd.

Many of the residents despited to stay for the meeting after Zises’s announcement because of the dispensary’s potential return to the agenda and other unresolved issues, said Jon Verdoni, who lives in the Pheasant Ridge subdivision near the nixed dispensary site.

“We are feeling partial relief,” Verdoni said. It was only partial because while the dispensary would not be located next to the only exit and entrance to their subdivision, the intersection still needs improvements.

Until better infrastructure is put in place, there should not be a business there, Verdoni said.

The intersection has seen 65 crashes at the intersection between 2012 and 2021, according to Richmond Police Department records. Of those, there were 30 injuries and 35 property damage reports.

The Illinois Department of Transportation determined that the intersection needed improvements, possibly a traffic light, in the early 2010s, Wardanian said. The improvements are low on the state agency’s priority list but a business could change that.

“Whether it is a dispensary, a Mobil gas staton or whatever, the same traffic problems need to be fixed to put a business there,” Verdoni said.