PEORIA, Ill. – Tuesday night the Peoria City Council approved the sales of recreational marijuana in the city.
However, the locations of marijuana dispensaries have guidelines that they must follow, accord to City Manager Patrick Urich.
“The Illinois General Assembly put in a distance requirement of 1,500 feet that the establishment’s can’t be next to one another,” Urich said. “We started to look at the distance that we would want to set for the City of Peoria.”
The council agreed that dispensaries will not be able to operate 500 feet within a daycare, school, house of worship, or place where minors congregate.
“What we looked at was our liquor license distance requirement is 100 feet from schools and other sensitive buildings. Our tobacco licence is 350 feet from schools and other sensitive areas. So, we looked at saying that for cannabis 500 feet was a defensible number we could set for that distance requirement to be met,” Urich said.
For the first wave in 2020, only three recreational marijuana licenses in the five county area are available.
“It is now up to the state of Illinois to determine who gets the licenses,” Urich said.
Craft growers, dispensaries, and cultivation centers will be able to operate in industrial districts, and special uses in commercial and agricultural districts.
Also at the meeting, Urich introduced the 2020-2021 Biennial Budget.
In the budget, Urich proposed zero increase in property taxes and no furloughs or layoffs.
Recently, citizens in Peoria noted that they did not want to cuts for the city’s public safety. An online budget challenge was issued in July, where residents would show how they would plan the budget. On average, the survey results showed that residents would focus 38.8 percent of the budget on public safety.
Residents in Peoria would see an increase in the monthly cost for garbage collection.
“Based upon the contract we have with Peoria Disposal Company, our costs for garbage collection and disposal next year will be a little over $9 million. The revenue set at $19 per household will not cover that cost,” Urich said.
To cover the cost, the monthly fee for garbage collection and disposal will be raised to $21.
Also suggested for the budget is $2.5 million for a replacement fire station in 2020 and in 2021.
Urich said that the goal would be to relocate station 16.
“Station 16 is an older fire station that was originally a township fire protection district station, it is very small,” Urich said.
The goal would also be to relocate station 19 closer to War Memorial Drive to better serve the area.
The budget for the Peoria Police Department would be reduced, but staffing would remain the same at 249, with currently over 21 vacancies.
“We’re encouraging the department to higher as quickly as they can. But, there’s no way that they’re going to be able to hire and fill all of those positions with the pending the retirements that are going to be following up on those 21 current vacancies,” Urich said.
That allows the police budget to be reduced by $800,087.
Urich said the fire department has been over their authorized strength by three positions.
“All we’re recommending is that those three positions, when people retire, don’t get filled,” Urich said.
In the next 2 years, $30.5 million would be put towards streets and sidewalks. Also, $17.4 million will go towards the sewers.
City council did not make any votes for the budget tonight, they will review and discuss more of the budget in further meetings until Nov. 12th.
