Alton Dispensary Map Amendment Fails

ALTON - Alton’s two dispensary zones will remain the same after a resolution to amend them failed to receive a second on Monday night. The amendment’s failure casts uncertainty on the next location of the Alton Dispensary, which planned to open in a building unauthorized under the city’s current dispensary zone map.

The City of Alton is divided into two dispensary zones - Zone 1 to the north and Zone 2 to the south - with an ordinance in place to limit the number of dispensaries in the city to one per zone. The amended map would have altered Zone 1 to encompass a section in the southeastern portion of the city to encompass a building at 3401 E. Broadway, where the Alton Dispensary planned to reopen.

Terrace Dispensary representative Dan Lytle, who previously accused city officials of “gerrymandering” the map to benefit The Alton Dispensary, appeared on Monday to ask Committee of the Whole members not to take action on the item.

“Ultimately, we want to be a part of Alton,” Lytle said. “We don’t want this to be adversarial - what’s good for Alton is however many dispensaries you want to have in Alton, that they are working together within your ordinances to ensure that we are all compliant, all doing the right things.

“I would request that no further action be taken until such time as this council is fully informed on the issues - and if I can be a part of that, I would be happy to do so.”

Following Lytle’s comments, the dispensary zone map amendment failed to come to a vote due to lack of a second.

Lytle also claimed in an email that “the proposed remapping of the cannabis zone map will not result in any significant additional tax revenue to the City of Alton, particularly in light of the newly opened Village Dispensary by Mr. Wysocki’s ownership group in the former Woody’s Chicken location [in Godfrey] that is mere feet from the Alton city limits.”

As previously reported on Riverbender.com, Terrace Dispensary’s ownership is directly linked to Subsero Alton Ops LLC, the Alton Dispensary’s former management company which was accused in a lawsuit with misappropriating Alton Dispensary funds, launching a retaliatory cyberattack against The Alton Dispensary, and more. Subsero was later accused of evicting the Alton Dispensary from their original location at 1400 E. Broadway, which Terrace now occupies.

Jeremy Wysocki, president and CEO of IllinoisCannabis49, Inc., d/b/a The Alton Dispensary, said in December of 2023 that he was “very hopeful” Alton city officials would expand the zoning categories dispensaries are allowed to operate in as they searched for a new location. Those zoning categories were expanded the following month, and cannabis dispensaries are now allowed within C-2 General Commercial Districts and C-5 Heavy Commercial Districts.

Any future proposed location for the Alton Dispensary would not only have to be located within one of those zoning districts, but also within Zone 1 of the original Alton dispensary zone map.

See previous coverage of this topic on Riverbender.com for more about the dispensary map amendment. A recording of the April 22, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story, on the Riverbender.com Facebook page, or on Riverbender.com/video.

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