Plans for a proposed cannabis dispensary at the corner of 31st Street and Park Avenue will go before the village board in January after planning and zoning commissioners were split on approving the application on Dec. 18.
The advisory group voted 4-3 to approve a special use permit for the business at 9046 31st St., advancing the case to village trustees at their Jan. 12 meeting. The vote came after about two hours of discussion, including much public comment both for and against the opening of the dispensary. Special use permits are required for all dispensaries with retail sales in Brookfield’s various business zoning districts.
Commissioners Karen Ann Miller, Steven Sabourin, Christopher Straka and Chair Charles Grund voted in favor of the project while commissioners Ryan Evans, Todd Svoboda and Mark Weber voted against it.
The proposed business would be called Prolific Dispensary and be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. It would feature a 1960s aesthetic that is not visually associated with cannabis, said Tanya Griffin, the CEO of Water + Trees, a consulting firm based in Denver that works with company owners to set up dispensaries. Griffin described Prolific and other dispensaries she has worked to set up as “high-end” businesses with “quick and easy” services.
“I love community neighborhood dispensaries, and there’s no community that’s as important to me as Brookfield, because this is where my kids and my grandchildren live,” she told commissioners. “Brookfield needs a dispensary I would shop at, and that is no joke. I’m not going to tell you my age, but I’m old, and at this point in my life, if I’m going to use something to help me sleep or for pain, I don’t choose alcohol. I do choose cannabis.”
Griffin said Prolific would be owned and operated by members of the Laws family, including chief executive officer William Laws, a former defense attorney, chief marketing officer Amber Laws, his daughter, and chief operations officer William Laws IV, his son.
According to the business plan included in the agenda packet for the meeting, Amber Laws and William Laws IV “will be intricately involved in daily operations,” and Prolific will be “deeply connected to the village of Brookfield while supporting neighboring communities” and participating in local community events.
At the meeting, residents gave public comment both in support of and in opposition to the proposed dispensary. Many of those who spoke against it expressed fears of increased traffic along 31st Street and at an intersection many said is already known to be dangerous and difficult to cross, while those who spoke for it decried fearmongering about the negative optics associated with cannabis use.
After public comment concluded, Evans expressed frustration at some residents’ requests for the petitioners to look to put the dispensary elsewhere and noted the location has been vacant since 2019.
“If I think back to my three years on the board here, the two most populated meetings [were] this one and when we tried to put a daycare there. Both had [people saying], ‘Don’t put it there because it’s a problem,’ so I’m not sure what becomes not a problem for that location,” he said. “We keep hearing that each of the things that comes to us poses challenges, and that’s the truth. Any new business is going to pose challenges to every neighborhood that it goes into.”
He said he was still against allowing the special use at this location due to its proximity to residences, including three apartments on the second floor of the mixed-use building.
“If it’s a dangerous intersection for a [nearby] Montessori school or for a dispensary or for just about anything else, then nothing could go there,” Straka said. “It’d be a forever-vacant property, so that’s not a good enough reason to deny recommendation for this business.”
