SOUTH BELOIT - A second marijuana dispensary will be opening in South Beloit this summer.
The South Beloit City Council on Monday approved changing zoning from commercial retail to commercial traffic and a special use permit tor the new dispensary to be called Cloud Haven at 1322 Gardner St. Council member Ken Morse was the only no vote on the proposal.
Wah Group LLC, based in the Chicago area, is the owner of the new marijuana dispensary and the South Beloit location will be its first marijuana dispensary.
South Beloit welcomed its first marijuana dispensary, Sunnyside, located along Willowbrook Road near Interstate 39/90, in July of 2020. The dispensary has seen a lot of traffic in the past several years, with customers coming from both Illinois and Wisconsin.
Mazie Harris, of Wah Group LLC, said the dispensary already has a conditional license and the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation will inspect the business when it opens. She said the plan is to open the dispensary before July of this year.
"When we applied for the license, we researched where the best regions were for a new dispensary," Harris said. "We found that Rockford already was saturated, but South Beloit looked like a good location."
She said the state has issued marijuana dispensary licenses to 185 locations, and Illinois can issue up to 500 licenses.
Mayor Tom Fitzgerald said there have been no substantial problems with the Sunnyside dispensary and he said the owners of the Cloud Haven dispensary have been very cooperative.
Council member Ryan Adleman said he initially was concerned about the signage proposed for the new business, but the owners were cooperative and made changes that satisfy him.
Although he agreed with Fitzgerald that the Cloud Haven group has been very easy to work with, Adleman did say he had one other concern.
"I am concerned that these facilities will grow like weeds - no pun intended," Adleman said. "I wonder if we can place a limit on the number of dispensaries we can allow."
City Attorney Roxanne Sosnowski said state statute will allow a limit on the number of dispensaries a community wishes to allow and she already is working on an ordinance regarding that issue.
