Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to open up more of the downtown area to marijuana dispensaries and make it easier to set up the shops in other neighborhoods moved forward in City Council Monday.

       Two aldermen used a parliamentary procedure to stall the mayor’s ordinance last week amid questions about whether it will really help minority cannabis license holders get a share of the lucrative market. But on Monday the council moved the proposal to the Zoning Committee for further consideration by a 33-13 vote.

       Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a City Council meeting on Sept. 14, 2021. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

       Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, continued his opposition to the measure on Monday, saying state law must be fixed to truly help minority entrepreneurs instead of just enriching companies fronting for large marijuana conglomerates. “We can slow down. We can do this right,” Lopez said.

       Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, complained that the marijuana industry wrote the new city rules to protect itself. “The industry does not want people of color part of this program. We know that,” he said.

       But the chair of the Black Caucus, Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, said the sky isn’t falling, “it’s raining hundred-dollar bills.” Black business people need a chance to partake in the marijuana gold rush, Ervin said, and the mayor’s plan is a step to help that happen.

       Ald. Jason Ervin listens during the city council meeting on the budget plan at City Hall on Nov. 26, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

       Lightfoot’s ordinance would allow marijuana businesses to spread much more widely downtown, into areas where they were previously prohibited. Only a small area of the city’s center would continue to exclude dispensaries, including parts of Michigan Avenue and the South Loop, plus a stretch approaching Navy Pier from Michigan.

       Current rules exclude a most of the downtown area, stretching up into River North.

       City analyst Will Shih told the Zoning Committee earlier this month that the hope is that opening up more prime real estate to dispensaries will give minority cannabis license owners better opportunities to get their businesses up and running in Chicago.

       Dozens of license holders in a first round of state marijuana license approvals opted to open in the suburbs, because the zoning process is easier in surrounding towns than in Chicago, Shih said.

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       Amid pushback from Zoning Committee members worried the mayor’s new ordinance would not go far enough to protect the interests of Black and Latino entrepreneurs, the committee initially held off on a vote on the proposal.

       Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, later told the committee he was working on language to help protect minority-owned cannabis companies. He said he would submit that language at a later date, and the committee in the meantime voted to advance the mayor’s plan.

       Lightfoot also is calling for some zoning restrictions in outlying neighborhoods to be eased so license holders don’t get drawn into lengthy processes with aldermen and community groups while trying to open.

       The mayor wanted to make it easier for dispensaries to open in even more neighborhood business districts, but several aldermen were resistant to giving up the power to require marijuana companies to get zoning changes in those areas, so she withdrew that idea.

       Her plan faced a fair amount of criticism in committee. With the state set to allow dozens of licenses in the Chicago area, Beale said he still expects minority licensees to be forced to sell their licenses to better-funded white-owned marijuana conglomerates.

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       “We’re being hoodwinked once again, and here we are saying we have to hurry up and vote for this so social equity people can get a piece of the pie,” Beale said then. “We are not getting a piece of this pie, because the same people who wrote this (state) law are the same people who own all the dispensaries.”

       Beale and Lopez later deferred the ordinance when Lightfoot introduced it to the full council, setting up Monday’s vote to send it to committee.

       jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

       Twitter @_johnbyrne

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