The revised boundaries would exclude retail marijuana sales between Lake Michigan and State Street north of the river. In the Loop, the exclusion zone would remain the same: stretching between the Chicago River and the lake south of the river.

Lightfoot’s original proposal would have prohibited retail marijuana shops from Lake Michigan to LaSalle Street in River North and between the lake and the Chicago River in the Loop. From north to south, the banned zone would have extended from Oak Street to Ida B. Wells Drtive.

The City Council’s zoning committee is expected to take up the ordinance tomorrow afternoon.

The committee hearing is being livestreamed on CAN-TV.

Marijuana companies balked at the mayor’s original proposal, arguing that it would preclude the most densely populated retail area of the city. Lightfoot’s team contended the original ban encompassed most of downtown for security reasons.

Marijuana companies have been scrambling to find new locations as the state prepares to allow recreational marijuana sales Jan. 1. The downtown ban only complicates a process already under intense time constraints.

Each company with a medical marijuana license is allowed to seek an additional retail location under the state law signed in June. There are no medical dispensaries downtown, which is seen as the most-prized market for recreational sales.

Lightfoot plans to allow only seven licenses each in seven districts across the city, one of which encompasses downtown, in the first wave of licensing through May. The number will increase to 14 after that, when the first wave of 75 new dispensary licenses will be awarded by the state.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, whose ward encompasses much of downtown, told reporters when the zoning rules were first announced last month that he wanted at least "a couple" dispensaries downtown so the city could rake in revenue from visitors and commuters. While he agrees that the Mag Mile is "not a good location for a dispensary" and neither is State Street, there are other areas that "might be decent," he said, including near rail stations.

"Having to go to Fulton Market to buy your marijuana is not making that an equity play in a struggling neighborhood, it's simply making you travel outside central core to access it," he said at the time.