Melissa Murphy-Petros (Of Counsel-Chicago, IL), chair of the firm's appellate practice team and Kathleen McDonough (Of Counsel-Chicago, IL) of the firm's cannabis team joined efforts to represent a cannabis cultivation company before the Illinois Supreme Court in a case discussed in a Law360 article, "Upstart Asks Ill. Justices to Reverse Cannabis Center License," published on March 10, 2021. The team is attempting to restore a trial court's order preventing a much larger grower from opening a cultivation center in an area the client says is too close to residential property. The case was won by Kathleen in the trial court, but it was reversed on appeal, and then the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to hear it. The fact that the Illinois Supreme Court accepted this case of first impression underscores the importance of the issue at hand, especially considering the fact that it takes fewer than 5% of petitions for leave to appeal. Melissa argued before the Supreme Court that the applicable regulation says cultivation centers can't be located within 2,500 feet of areas zoned "exclusively" for residential purposes. The Illinois Department of Agriculture defended the challenged licensing decision by pointing to the fact that the residential zones near the planned cultivation center allow special use permits for nonresidential uses. But that interpretation "impermissibly restricts the scope" of the Cannabis Act's location requirement and improperly allows the department to effectively treat special-use permits as zoning amendments," Melissa argued. The appellate decision under review said that while the zoning districts near the planned center were clearly designated residential, the many other uses allowed in those districts make clear that they are not "exclusively" residential as Illinois Department of Agriculture rules require. 

Read the Article.

Audio/Video Archives: Medponics Illinois LLC v. Illinois Department of Agriculture​.