Community members on Tuesday pummeled the state’s largest pot firm with questions about its proposed new dispensary location in River North as the mad dash to open new shops in Chicago entered a new phase.

The packed meeting at a Maggiano’s restaurant located a block from Cresco’s proposed location at 436 N. Clark was the first held in the city after a slew of cannabis firms began applying to open the first round of standalone recreational pot stores.

Community members on Tuesday raised concerns about a range of issues, including the potential for lines and more traffic, customers getting high in public and more serious crimes.

“Where are they smoking and what are you going to do about increasing patrol,” one attendee asked.

Cresco spokesman Jason Erkes said the shop will employ a round-the-clock private security detail and a surveillance system that can be monitored by Chicago police at all times. He added that the overflow from the store that can hold around 50 customers at a time will be able to wait inside nearby businesses.

Cresco’s team was also pressed to sign a community benefits agreement ensuring that workers earn more than minimum wage and have an opportunity to work their way up the “corporate ladder.”

“We hope to work with them in enacting the CBA, making sure they’re paying their fair share when it comes to repairing the harms done by the war on drugs,” said Peter Contos, vice president of the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition. “We are very disappointed in Cresco’s efforts to create the monopoly that currently exists in Illinois.”

The company has quickly grown into one of the nation’s largest vertically integrated cannabis firms, meaning it both grows and sells pot. Roughly 25% of the legal weed produced in Illinois comes from Cresco’s three growth facilities.

Erkes said the company has invested heavily in efforts to create equity in the state’s nascent pot industry, including launching an incubator program for minority entrepreneurs and committing over $4 million to the state’s Cannabis Business Development Fund.

During his presentation, Erkes said Cresco’s overarching mission is to “normalize and professionalize” the cannabis industry. Though he sold Cresco’s new Sunnyside dispensary brand as catering to pot users of all kinds — from creative young people to medical patients to baby boomers — many folks at Maggiano’s fell into the latter category.

A highly publicized lottery in November broadly determined where cannabis firms could open up recreational dispensaries.

To receive zoning approval from the city, those companies must first engage the communities where they plan to open. Cresco, which is also headquartered in River North, drew three spots in the lottery, including another in the coveted central cannabis zone covering much of the downtown area.

Mike Riordan, president of the River North Residents Association, will now refer the audience’s concerns to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which will determine the fate of Cresco’s new location during a special meeting March 6 for cannabis firms.