Life in Sycamore could offer more chances soon for those interested in purchasing recreational cannabis, after the Sycamore City Council this week approved a permit for a dispensary in town.

That’s not enough to guarantee the dispensary can open, however. State officials control the flow of permits issued to prospective cannabis dealers.

Steve Weber, the businessman behind Echelon Grow, chances are “very high,” that the state issue a state-level operations permit, too, which is necessary to open the pot shop.

If that happens, Echelon Grow is expected to open at 1598 DeKalb Ave., across from O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. The space previously housed Bill Cho’s Taekwondo Center.

“This will be our – Echelon Grow’s first store, but our group as a whole – we have about 16," Weber said on Monday. “It’s a very experienced team.”

The Council voted unanimously to back Weber’s petition Monday. Alderpersons also approved changing the city code to shorten the required distance between a dispensary and school or daycare.

City Manager Michael Hall said the City Council was tasked with deciding if the business would be an appropriate use of the property under the city’s zoning standards – not whether the business deserves to be licensed to sell pot. But that instruction came after the City Council voted 7-1 to loosen zoning requirements for dispensaries.

Previously, city code required any cannabis dispensary to be 1,000 feet from schools or daycares, according to city documents. On Monday, 2nd Ward Alderman Chuck Stowe – who voted yes on the dispensary permit – was the only one who voted against reducing that setback requirement to 250 feet.

He said he doesn’t see a problem with Echelon Grow’s operation, but wanted to keep the city’s rules for cannabis dispensaries as they were.

“Even though the local daycare person says they’re fine with it, that’s fine for this one, but we’re setting a precedent for all the ones to come in the future,” Stowe said. “We probably ought to stay with our standard.”

Echelon Grow would be about 287 feet from a daycare. No one from the daycare spoke at Monday’s meeting.

No one spoke against the Echelon Grow permit request either, unlike when a businessman sought to set up a marijuana growing business in Sycamore in 2023.

Third Ward Alderwoman Nancy Copple, who attended a planning and zoning committee meeting on the topic, noted the lack of pushback from city residents.

“It’s different than 2023, when Chris Mayer came to us asking for the growing place,” Copple said. “That poor guy, he was dealing with the church people and everything, and it was like a big difference. And I felt like this was more welcoming to the city of Sycamore.”

While discussing the setback rule changes, 3rd Ward Alderman Marvin Barnes said he thought it was “noteworthy” that the city requires a 250-foot separation between businesses that sell tobacco smoking products and schools and daycares. For businesses that sell alcohol, that separation is 100 feet, Barnes said.

“I personally see no problem with this 250 feet,” Barnes said.

Fourth Ward Alderman David Stouffer said he used artificial intelligence to research land zoning rules around schools and daycares ahead of the City Council meeting.

“I didn’t see a lot of land that was zoned for this kind of business and for that reason I don’t really see a problem with making it a 250-foot rule,” Stoufer said.

When Echelon Grow could open remains to be determined. Weber said his best guess would be the very end of April or early May, pending state permitting.

DeKalb County already has two dispensaries, both in DeKalb: Excelleaf, which opened at 305 E. Locust St. downtown in November 2023, and nuEra DeKalb Dispensary, which opened in May 2024 at 818 W. Lincoln Highway in the Junction Shopping Center.

Dispensary customers could have the option to grab something besides cannabis from the premises, too.

“We’ll have a Jersey Mike’s franchise inside of our facility,” Weber said.