A new Star Buds storefront could come to the corner of East Burlington Street and South Harlem Avenue in Riverside.
At its June 26 meeting, the village’s planning & zoning commission held a public hearing about the proposed development before the commissioners discussed it. The commission was tasked with reviewing the overall site plan, as well as several variations from the village code included in the plan. The meeting lasted just longer than three hours, with the final two hours dedicated solely to the public hearing and subsequent discussion.
While the village’s commissioners had problems with the plan as presented, they ultimately chose to table their vote to approve or deny the variations and Star Buds’ other requests to their July 24 meeting, giving the store’s representatives time to adjust their plan to the commission’s feedback. The planning & zoning commission must vote on the proposal before Riverside’s village board considers whether to approve or deny it.
If the village board approves the development down the line, the existing Star Buds in Riverside would likely relocate to the new building. Representatives told the Landmark in September that its current, leased location at 2704 S. Harlem Ave. had been intended as a temporary spot for the dispensary.
The development would see a new 4,090-square-foot Star Buds store go up at 3320 S. Harlem Ave. and 363-369 E. Burlington Street, two vacant parcels of land that Village Planner Anne Cyran said Star Buds is “under contract to buy.”
The abandoned building that sits on the west side of the property now would be demolished and a new parking lot would be put in, and the site would be redeveloped so the new building sits in place of the existing parking lot on the east side of the lot.
According to plans for the site, the new dispensary’s main entrance would face west toward the new parking lot, one of the plan’s variations from Riverside’s village code, which dictates that the building would normally be required to have an entrance facing north toward East Burlington Street. The back of the building, facing South Harlem Avenue to the east, would have a large sign with the Star Buds name, mirroring the front end.
Star Buds’ plan for the parcels includes a second retail space of about 1,400 square feet with a small outdoor seating area that would go up directly adjacent to the dispensary and share the new parking lot. No tenant for the space has yet been selected, though Star Buds’ architect for the project — Brian Gould, president of the Oakbrook Terrace-based firm BR Design & Architecture — said it could be a coffee shop, bakery or other small store that would benefit from a “symbiotic relationship” with Star Buds rather than something requiring more resources, like a sit-down restaurant.
The proposal also includes a drive-thru that would bring customers to the back of the dispensary to quickly pick up orders. The secondary retailer would not use it. Currently, Illinois’ Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act prohibits dispensaries from operating drive-thrus, meaning Riverside cannot legally allow the dispensary to go up with one.
At the meeting, Gould and Star Buds partner Ahmad Joudeh said they were confident the Illinois legislature would soon pass a bill enabling dispensaries to operate drive-thrus. The commissioners said they cannot make their decisions based on the predicted actions of the Illinois General Assembly and that the site plan as designed — with an entrance facing the parking lot rather than the street, among other details — would be acceptable only with a legal drive-thru.
Gould and Joudeh agreed that if dispensary drive-thrus remain illegal, the drive-thru lane would act only as a loading zone for product deliveries, allowing them to revise the plan while keeping the planned drive-thru lane and allowing the commission to consider the plan without regard to matters of state law.
While Joudeh and Gould did not mention by name the state bill they had in mind, they may have been referring to SB2281, which would get rid of the “language prohibiting dispensing organizations from operating drive-through windows” on the books in Illinois. According to the Illinois General Assembly, chief sponsor Sen. Ram Villivalam filed the bill Feb. 10, 2023. One month later, on March 10, 2023, the bill was re-referred to the assignments committee, responsible for determining which committees consider which bills. Since then, the bill has lain dormant on the Senate floor.
Joudeh did not respond to the Landmark’s requests for comment following the planning and zoning commission meeting.
After Gould presented to and spoke with commissioners for about an hour during the public hearing portion of the meeting, the commissioners discussed the proposal among themselves, with many taking issue with aspects of the plan.
One concern was a lack of signage about or visibility of the planned drive-thru exit, which would be on the easternmost side of the property, behind the back of Star Buds; commissioners said they were worried for pedestrians walking along East Burlington Street who may not see the drive-thru exit, or who may not be seen by drivers approaching the exit, until they are already upon it.
Another issue, raised by Commissioner Jacqueline Miller, was about the building’s orientation, especially in relation to where its main entrance is placed. During the public hearing, she asked Gould why the building must have its entrance face west toward the parking lot rather than north toward the street, as the village code requires. Gould said that the internal layout of the planned building, mainly the amount of space that must legally be dedicated toward storing products on-site, would not work if the building’s orientation were to change.
Chief among the commissioners’ concerns was the issue of lighting. The store’s main signs, which would face east and west, would be backlit with panels, allowing them to shine light during the store’s hours of operations. On the front, back and side facing East Burlington Street, ledges hanging over the main entrance, the drive-thru and blacked-out windows, respectively, would shine green light down toward the ground.
“For me, the major issue is the lighting,” Commissioner John Mathews said at the meeting. “It’s almost a non-starter when I think of that facade of the building beaming out those bright lights towards downtown Riverside, towards a residential neighborhood. You can put as many lights as you want on Harlem [Avenue] and blast it out there. I don’t care. But anywhere it’s going to come in and interfere with people’s homes, that’s an issue.”
At the end of the meeting, Gould and Joudeh agreed to revise their plan for the site to deal with the issues raised by the commissioners, who then voted to have them present their new version of the plan at the commission’s next meeting on July 24.
Correction, July 3, 2024, 5:53 p.m.: An article titled “Star Buds eyes new dispensary storefront in Riverside” that appeared in print July 3, 2024, misspelled the name of a planning and zoning commissioner. He is Commissioner John Mathews. The Landmark apologizes for the error.
