Chicago regulators approve controversial cannabis dispensary

Regulators have approved a controversial proposed cannabis dispensary for Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, despite a recommended denial from the city zoning administrator. Opponents say it is too close to a school and will delay emergency vehicles.

The business was approved by a 3-2 vote of the Zoning Board of Appeals, including a vote in favor by former Ald. Helen Shiller, whose son helped the business obtain a license but was not involved in the zoning case.

Consultants for the business said the school in dispute was primarily a day care, and like any other retailer, the store won’t cause major disruptions.

“The hysteria (about cannabis stores problems) that may have existed 10 years ago just has not come to fruition,” dispensary attorney Jim Banks said. “There’s no evidence of an impact on increased crime, traffic or property values.”

The city zoning administrator for the Department of Planning and Development had ruled that the school was within 500 feet of Guidepost Montessori at Magnificent Mile, at 226 E. Illinois St.

A parent testified at the hearing in September, and the facility provided a letter, saying that it provides education to grade schoolers, in addition to being a day care.

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, opposed the dispensary’s location, citing concerns about traffic, a lack of parking and the fact that the city required a nearby liquor store to get special permission for a license since it was near the school.

The facility is licensed as a day care but not as a school, Banks said. Though school licensure is not required, by law, its primary purpose is a day care, he argued.

The site at 620 N. Fairbanks Court, which becomes Columbus Drive to the south, is close to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital. The street there has no legal parking, but residents fear that customers will park on the street and block traffic, including ambulances.

A traffic engineer for the dispensary said his studies showed the business won’t cause significant traffic disruptions, and that customers can park at nearby parking garages.

The dispensary would be the first in Streeterville, situated just outside the area where such stores are prohibited, along the Magnificent Mile and at Navy Pier.

Residents also complained that dispensary representatives circulated flyers and sent postcards and text messages promoting the business, in contravention of state law.

G.P. Green House LLC is doing business as Guaranteed Dispensary, which has two stores in Ohio. It is owned in part by CEO Aymin Haswah, who co-founded Guaranteed Pharma in 2018, according to his LinkedIn page. He was also an owner of Spirits Beverage Center in Chicago and PCW Cellular, which boasted more than $1 billion in wholesale cellular sales.

He put millions of dollars into constructing a home in Burr Ridge that he put on the market this summer for $6.2 million, after moving out of state, according to a report by The Real Deal.

Former 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer testified on Haswah’s behalf, saying that as owner of the liquor store, Haswah was very responsible and responsive to fix problems.

“These gentlemen always go over and above what they’re supposed to do,” he said.

Haswah’s partner, Ahman Shaban, qualified the business as social equity owned. The state designation gives licensing and financing preference to people with prior low-level cannabis arrests, or who come from areas of poverty or with high arrest rates for cannabis.

Residents circulated a petition to prohibit cannabis sales in the precinct, but failed to gather enough signatures. They did get some 800 signatures for an online petition to oppose the dispensary at change.org.

Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, but is legal for licensed dealers under state law. The state has issued a conditional license for Guaranteed Dispensary.

The owners plan a major renovation of the site, which was the longtime West Egg Cafe, located next to Timothy O’Toole’s sports bar.

Consultants expect hundreds of customers a day, and expect most to walk in from the neighborhood, spending only about five minutes each in the store.

Deborah Gershbein, the president of Streeterville Organization of Active Residents, or SOAR, considered Shiller’s vote “a major conflict of interest.”

The residents group considered litigation challenging the location near the school, but it’s too expensive, Gershbein said. They may instead challenge the business at the state level, she said.

“The school is the major issue,” she said. “I wouldn’t want my kids exposed to a cannabis dispensary. It’s considered a school for its liquor license, so why wouldn’t it be for a cannabis license?”

The smell of smoked marijuana has become common on Chicago streets, Gershbein said, adding that the city has a responsibility to enforce the law prohibiting smoking in cars and in public.

For their part, licensed cannabis business owners have long complained that Chicago’s zoning laws make it too hard to find a place to operate in the city, and too time-consuming and expensive to get approval.

When Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Brian Sanchez asked Shiller if she could be impartial, she said yes.

She had recused herself in another unrelated case, but said she had no conflict in this case because her son, attorney Brendan Shiller, had worked on the dispensary’s state license, but not on anything related to the city zoning issue before them.

The issue that board members were struggling with was whether the Montessori facility qualified as a school under the zoning code’s definition, which references following a state curriculum guidelines.

“We talked about both sides of it,” Shiller said. “It wasn’t a clear-cut decision. The city ordinance has language for a school which they don’t fit. We had to figure out what made sense.”

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