LISLE, IL — The village of Lisle is poised to opt out of recreational cannabis businesses after a three-hour meeting that was punctuated with groans, cheers, and applause from residents who packed the Committee of the Whole Meeting. Four trustees chose to direct staff to prepare to opt out and two trustees initially chose to direct to opt in and then changed their direction to opt out with a referendum.

Ultimately staff was directed to prepare an ordinance to opt out without a referendum.

The meeting was fraught with tense comments from community members and trustees alike as they tackled this heated subject. Recreational cannabis will be legal to use and sell in Illinois as of Jan. 1, 2020, but many Chicago suburbs are loath to allow cannabis businesses within their limits.

Trustees Sara Sadat and Stephen Winz supported directing the village staff to opt in and move the issue to the zoning commission. "Do you just want to opt out and make [this] decision for everyone," Winz said as he urged the board to consider a referendum that takes the public's opinion into consideration.

"A community that is saying that we're trying to grow and we're trying to prosper and we're trying to promote the betterment of Lisle, [yet will] not put [the issue of recreational cannabis sales] up to the community when we have an opportunity to do that now." Trustee Sadat agreed, saying she was interested in "having the public hear and speak about what they want to see Lisle become."

"The discussion should be more on the zoning level and the public level," Sadat said. Trustee Dixit said there were "far too many questions out there" before she could "give a definitive yes."

"We have three months to put into place the parameters of a very volatile situation," Dixit said, echoing the sentiments of other village trustees who declined to move the issue to zoning and planning or to consider opting out with a referendum.