Litchfield Extends Dispensary Hours in Cannabis Code Amendment

Article Summary: The Litchfield City Council approved an ordinance amending the municipal code’s adult-use cannabis section to allow business hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The change follows a request from Windy City Cannabis, the city’s only dispensary, and a unanimous recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board.

Adult-Use Cannabis Hours Key Points:

New hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Existing code allows 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The applicant was Windy City Cannabis, 719 W. Union Ave., through District Manager Mynor Raguay; the application carried a $110 filing fee and was received July 31, 2026.

Staff reported the Police Department “has not had issues with the retail establishment.” The ordinance’s number and implementation date were left blank in the packet.

LITCHFIELD — The Litchfield City Council on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, approved an ordinance amending the city’s adult-use cannabis regulations to let the city’s single dispensary stay open later, adopting hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The motion was made by Alderperson Sara Zumwalt, the council’s Building and Zoning liaison, and passed on a roll-call vote with no audible dissent in the meeting recording.

Under the code as it stands, the ordinance recites, business hours are “from 10:00am to 7:00pm., Monday through Friday and 10:00am to 5:00pm., Saturday through Sunday.” The amendment replaces that with a Sunday-through-Thursday block closing at 8 p.m. and a Friday-and-Saturday block closing at 9 p.m. The provisions limiting the city to one dispensary within its corporate limits and barring on-premises consumption are carried forward unchanged.

The Request

The change originated with a July 23, 2026, email to the city clerk’s office from Mynor Raguay, identified in his signature block as district manager for Windy City Cannabis. “I was hoping to get in contact with whoever can approve extending our business hours starting 8/7/26,” he wrote. “We would like to extend Friday’s and Saturday’s to 9pm closing time and Sunday’s to 8pm closing time. We need to submit municipality approval to IDFPR.”

A formal ordinance amendment application followed, signed July 30, 2026, and stamped received July 31. It identifies the property as 719 W. Union Ave., owned through an entity listed care of New Lake Capital in Chicago, and names Raguay and Erica Seaton as the applicant’s designated spokespeople. The application cites Ordinance #3591 as the ordinance in question, answers that the matter had not been before the Planning and Zoning Board previously, and states the reason for the request as “Requesting an extension to operating hours. Sunday-Thursday 8pm closing time and Friday and Saturday 9pm closing time.” The form notes a $110 filing fee, and the applicant answered that the amendment is consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan and modifies — rather than adds to, supplements or repeals — an existing section.

A Building and Zoning staff report dated Sept. 14, 2026, and addressed to the Planning and Zoning Board summarizes the proposal and adds a detail the council did not discuss: “Windy City Cannabis is currently open Monday-Thursday 9am-8pm, Friday-Saturday 9am-9pm, and Sunday 9am-8pm. The existing code of ordinances does not allow for these hours.” If the amendment were not approved, the report says, the business “will be required to limit their hours to 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday in order to be compliant with the municipal code.” The report also states: “The Police Department has reported that they have not had issues with the retail establishment.” The agenda memo likewise says staff “verified with the Police Department that there have been no issues with the business.”

Council Discussion

Zumwalt told the council the request had gone through zoning on Monday, where it was “unanimously approved,” and said she had questioned a representative for the business who was present at that meeting. She said the extended hours would be effective as of Thursday’s meeting if approved.

Asked for the rationale, she said the aim was accommodating more business. “I think it’s just an hour longer on all the days,” she said, and placed the hours in local context: a liquor store and the local Casey’s are open until 11 p.m., while the dispensary would close at 9 p.m. “So they’re still closed earlier than other establishments,” she said. “But again, it passed without question with zoning.”

No other alderperson spoke, and the roll was called.

Background

Litchfield’s cannabis regulations were adopted as Ordinance 3591, a recorded copy of which appears in the agenda packet. That ordinance set the hours now being amended, required the petitioner to install building enhancements such as security cameras and lighting “to ensure the safety of employees and customers,” and set out a table of permitted zoning districts allowing dispensaries in the C-1 and C-2 districts, with infusers, processors, transporters, craft growers and cultivation centers confined to the I district.

The ordinance in the packet recites that city staff provided a staff report to the Plan Commission and that the commission recommended the council permit the text amendment, with the commission’s report referenced as an exhibit. Both the ordinance number and the implementation date in Section 4 were left blank in the version distributed with the agenda.