The Joliet City Council Tuesday reversed a recommendation from the advisory zoning board and approved a cannabis dispensary at the site of the former NAPA auto store at 2121 W. Jefferson St.

The adult marijuana dispensary is expected to attract 300 to 700 customers per day, according to city council documents. On March 20, the five-person Joliet Zoning Board unanimously voted against putting a dispensary shop in the Marycrest Shopping Plaza.

The special use permit approved by the city council on Tuesday will make Bisa Lina Cannabis Dispensary at Hammes and West Jefferson the third adult marijuana business in Joliet. The business, adjacent to Walgreens, will be operated by Veltiste Wellness, under the name of Bisa Lina.

Business operators said they will make $1.8 million in property improvements and generate $360,000 in taxes for the city. The business expects to generate $12 million in gross revenues annually, according to operator Dev Patel and attorney Nathaniel Washburn, a partner with KGG Law Firm in Joliet.

Washburn said the intent of the State of the Illinois was to issue 500 cannabis dispensary licenses, with a goal of reaching a marijuana business for every 24,000 residents.

The City of Joliet, which has a population of 150,489 as of 2023, only has two RISE marijuana dispensaries on the west side of Joliet, while Plainfield with a population of 47,448 has two dispensaries and Aurora with a population of 177,000 has four recreational marijuana businesses.

The company, with a focus on health and wellness, according to city documents, will be open every day from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. It plans to hire around 20 employees, with four to seven on site at the store during operating hours, including a security guard.

According to the documents, Bisa Lina officials claim many of their customers pre-order their products, thus limiting their time in the store. The average visit of a customer is around 10 minutes.

But Jack Hermanski, who lives in the Marycrest neighborhood by the dispensary, said he remembers a time when Jefferson Street was known as the “golden mile.”

“It is my neighborhood and the people who want to put it there are not a part of Joliet,” he said. “I don’t feel this is the proper location.”

But Mayor Terry D’Arcy said he knows of a man in hospice who was taken off opioids and given medical marijuana. That man recovered and is still alive 10 years later.

“I know of some people immensely helped by medical marijuana,” he said.

In other city news

 Mayor D’Arcy on behalf of the council presented Second Baptist Church at 156 S. Joliet St., with a proclamation in recognition of their 145th anniversary on Sunday, April 27. The church was started by a group of Christian believers who began meeting in their homes in 1880, afterwards building the church in the predominately Black Joliet community adding facilities that included a full gymnasium and an adjacent two-story building that housed the Lamb’s Fold Women’s Center until 2008.

The church is also credited with creating a not-for-profit called Community Lifeline Ministry, that enables neighborhood outreach ministries to have a weekly curb-side food pantry, elementary after-school programs and basketball ministry for young men and women.

Pastor Larry Tyler delivered the invocation at start of Tuesday’s meeting.

“We want to thank city council for your help and support,” he said. “Also holistically, we try to meet the needs of not just our members, but the community.”

 mmayer@thetimesweekly.com