Legalizing recreational marijuana: There’s a map for that

Published on Jun. 5, 2019 by Steven Vance

The bill was enrolled (adopted) on June 25, 2019.

Governor Pritzker will probably sign HB 1438, the bill that legalizes recreational marijuana, really soon. The bill would take effect months later, after the various regulating and enforcing departments figure out the exact rules and regulations.

Map showing the 17 regions that establish quotes on the number of conditional licenses that can be issued before May 1, 2020. The West Central Illinois nonmetropolitan area includes three discontiguous areas; the East Central Illinois nonmetropolitan area includes two discontiguous areas.

The bill divides Illinois into 17 regions, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s metropolitan and nonmetropolitan definitions. Each region comprises one or more counties.

The “Chicago-Naperville-Elgin” region will allow 47 conditional recreational dispensary licenses to be issued before May 1, 2020. This region covers nine counties in Illinois and has a combined population of 8,628,040 people. These up to 47 recreational marijuana dispensaries would be in addition to the medicinal marijuana dispensaries that are governed by different borders.

Chicago Cityscape’s suburban zoning partner, Shapiro & Associates Law, wrote a pretty great summary of the incoming law so I don’t have to. I was reading the bill to find what I could map.

The limits on dispensaries noted on the map (quotas) are only for the initial batch of licenses. Ian Brown, an attorney at Shapiro & Associates, wrote, “The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act allows the state to issue a total of 500 recreational dispensary licenses by 2022 over a series of waves.”

View all 17 maps. Every time you look up an Address Snapshot you’ll be informed which recreational cannabis region and which medicinal cannabis district it’s in.

Other updates on Chicago Cityscape

Books. There’s now a permanent home for Chicago urbanist Twitter’s suggested reading about city planning in Chicago, including building histories, school closures, public housing policy failures, and how politicians have wielded power. Reply with your recommendation!
Revitalization Areas are now in our Incentives Checker, when you look up an Address Snapshot. This is basically another word for how the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development defines a disinvested area, and it’s where people can get a discount on a HUD-owned single-family house or condo. The addition of Revitalization Areas gives Incentives Checker its 22nd incentive to consider when looking up any address in Chicago. Cityscape has several incentives across Illinois, as well.
TOD status in Address Snapshot has been updated to do a better job saying how far away the nearest CTA or Metra station or eligible bus route is. Commercial and residential property near stations and eligible bus routes have drastically lower car parking requirements, and residential uses can get a free density bonus.

The nearest transit infrastructure is identified separately for rail stations and eligible bus route corridors, and the distance is bolded. Benefits for this particular location are clearly listed below.

It’s always been clearly communicated that a property is likely eligible for the Chicago “Transit Served Location” benefits by showing a green checkmark. Now, in addition, the section clearly shows how far away the nearest eligible transit infrastructure is.

The second change was making it easier to read and understand what the benefits of the property’s eligibility was as the benefits aren’t the same everywhere. For example, most zoning districts limit the number of efficiency units (studios) in a multi-family building, but that limit is waived if the proposed building is no further than one block away from the transit infrastructure.

Look up the TOD status of a property you’re thinking of buying.

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