DANVILLE — Some Danville City Council aldermen have voiced concerns about the Sunnyside cannabis dispensary in Danville not selling medical cannabis, but only recreational cannabis, as discussed when the council last year approved the dispensary zoning request.

Danville Corp. Counsel Chuck Mockbee and Danville Grants and Planning Manager Logan Cronk have a telephone meeting scheduled with Cresco Labs/Sunnyside officials for Tuesday in regards to that topic.

Ward 7 Alderman Steve Foster in June asked city staff to give an update in July on why medicinal cannabis isn’t being sold at Sunnyside.

Foster said the council had the understanding that the cannabis dispensary would sell recreational and medicinal cannabis.

Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. and other aldermen agreed with that understanding.

Ward 3 Alderman R.J. Davis also brought up the issue earlier this month at the end of a city council meeting.

Davis said Cresco Labs/Sunnyside officials said they’d be prepared to sell recreational and medical marijuana.

Davis too said he has family members who have been using medical marijuana. When they went to Sunnyside Danville to get medical marijuana, they were told it’s not sold there.

He said Cresco Labs needs to stick to their principle, even if it wasn’t in writing.

“It’s a serious thing with me,” Davis said. “I don’t think they’re being fair and I think it’s the principle of the thing. I think we should do something about it.”

Through an email earlier this month, Jason Erkes, chief communications officer with Cresco Labs/Sunnyside, stated “The only thing we’ve heard from the city is how excited they are to have us. To my knowledge, we never presented anything to the city about this being a medical dispensary as that would be against state law. We might have spoken about the medicinal benefits of cannabis as plenty of people use cannabis for issues with pain, sleep, anxiety, etc. and those are not all medical patients.”

Aldermen also brought up how former restaurant signage hasn’t been taken down at the cannabis dispensary site.

The Sunnyside Danville cannabis dispensary opened about two months ago. It’s located at 369 Lynch Drive in the former Big Boy restaurant site, and is a recreational, adult-use only store.

The Danville City Council voted 9-2 in November 2019 to approve a special-use permit for a medicinal/adult-use cannabis dispensing organization for that site in the B3-general business zoned district. The council also voted 9-2 to amend the city’s zoning ordinance and map for adult-use and medicinal cannabis. In other city news, Williams had not heard on Friday whether Danville’s casino application would be discussed at next week’s Illinois Gaming Board meeting.

In addition, the Danville City Council’s Public Services Committee will not meet next week.

Williams said they are forgoing committee meetings again for the foreseeable future, as the city council has returned to teleconference meetings.

Aldermen had met twice in person again after months of teleconference meetings, but city hall has been closed this week after a potential COVID-19 exposure.

The Danville City Council’s next teleconference meeting is on Aug. 4.

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