Crystal Lake panel unanimously backs a cannabis drive-thru; City Council decides Nov. 17

Crystal Lake's City Council is expected to decide on Nov. 17 whether Ivy Hall Dispensary can open a drive-thru pickup window at its store at 501 Pingree Road, after the city's Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval on Wednesday, Oct. 21, Shaw Local's Northwest Herald reported on Oct. 25. If approved, it would be the second cannabis drive-thru in McHenry County, after Terrabis in Woodstock.

The request follows a change in Illinois law this year. Until June, state law barred dispensaries from selling through drive-thru windows. Public Act 104-0463, known as Senate Bill 3222, removed that prohibition when Gov. JB Pritzker signed it on June 12, 2026.

What Crystal Lake is considering

According to a public hearing notice published Oct. 3, Ivy Hall Dispensary and the property owner, 501 Pingree LLC, petitioned for an amendment to the store's special use permit to allow "a cannabis dispensary with drive-through." The Planning and Zoning Commission held the hearing at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at Crystal Lake City Hall, 100 West Woodstock Street. The commission's vote is a recommendation; the City Council makes the final decision.

The store opened in 2023 in a former Culver's restaurant, and the old drive-thru window is still intact, the Northwest Herald reported. Brianna Draksler, Ivy Hall's regional director, told the paper the owners kept it because they expected the state law to change. The window will be upgraded to meet the state's high-security requirements, according to the report.

Under the plan described to the newspaper:

• Drive-thru orders would have to be placed online in advance.
• Customers would drive up, show identification and any required medical documents, and pick up orders kept "in a restricted area with a locked cabinet, just ready to go after they've been ID'd," Draksler said.
• Every occupant of the vehicle would need to be identified. If someone in the car cannot be identified, the customer would be directed to come inside.
• The drive-thru would keep the same hours as the store, and the dispensary does not plan to change its hours.

Draksler told the paper that more than half of the store's orders are already placed online and that customers usually receive them within two to five minutes. "Within 20 or 30 minutes, we will knock out 50 transactions," she said.

Ivy Hall has 10 locations in Illinois, and Crystal Lake is its "highest volume location," with about $70,000 to $80,000 a month in recreational sales alone, Draksler told the Northwest Herald. The store recently added a medical license, she said. Ivy Hall remains the only open dispensary in Crystal Lake after Spark'd Dispensary closed suddenly at the end of 2024; the city approved another operator to take over that site, which has not opened, the paper reported.

What the state law changed

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), which licenses dispensaries, explained the changes in a fact sheet dated June 23, 2026. It lists drive-through windows and curbside pickup as effective immediately on June 12, citing the deletion of the prohibition in 410 ILCS 705/15-70(p)(7) and related changes in Sections 15-85(d) and 15-100(c)(5.5) of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.

The approval is not automatic. "Prior to offering drive-through or curbside, licensees need to have their systems reviewed and approved by IDFPR," the fact sheet says. To start that review, a dispensary must send the department an updated floor plan clearly showing where the service will be offered, an updated security plan, and standard operating procedures for the new service.

The same law made other changes that affect customers and stores, according to the IDFPR fact sheet:

• Hours: dispensaries may stay open until 2 a.m. with local municipal approval, and must notify IDFPR of new hours with proof of that approval.
• Possession limits for Illinois residents: flower rose from 30 grams to 60 grams, cannabis-infused products from 500 mg to 1,000 mg of THC, and concentrate from 5 grams to 10 grams.
• Limits for nonresidents: flower rose from 15 grams to 30 grams, infused products from 250 mg to 500 mg of THC, and concentrate from 2.5 grams to 5 grams.
• Security: dispensaries may hire their own security guards instead of contracting with outside security companies, and may keep 60 days of camera footage instead of 90.
• Medical licenses: starting Sept. 10, 2026, any adult-use dispensary with an active license in good standing may opt in to a medical dispensary license.

Marijuana Moment reported on the IDFPR guidance on July 7. Its June 12 coverage of the signing said the omnibus law also lets medical cannabis certifications be issued by telehealth and expands craft grower canopy limits from 5,000 to 14,000 square feet.

The Woodstock example

Woodstock shows how the two layers of approval, local and state, work in practice. On Sept. 1, the Woodstock City Council approved an ordinance amending the special use permit for Terrabis at 601 S. Eastwood Drive to allow a drive-through window, according to the council's meeting packet. The item passed on the consent agenda without discussion, the Northwest Herald reported on Sept. 4.

Like Ivy Hall, Terrabis moved into a former fast-food building, a Burger King, that already had a drive-thru lane. City documents from 2024 said the window would be removed because state law banned drive-thru dispensary sales, but the window stayed, the Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported on Sept. 12.

Terrabis said its Woodstock drive-thru would open by the end of September and run from 6 a.m. to midnight on Sundays and Mondays and from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday, the Scanner reported. The company opened what it called the state's first dual-window dispensary drive-thru in Grayville on Sept. 4, and said all five of its Illinois dispensaries were built drive-thru ready, with the remaining three awaiting local approvals as of mid-September.

Other cities are working through the same question

Peoria is also weighing the change. On Oct. 13, the Peoria City Council voted to receive and file a draft ordinance that would allow drive-through and curbside service at dispensaries, WCBU reported on Oct. 16; the proposal is expected to return to the council. Peoria's dispensaries currently must close by 10 p.m., and deputy city attorney Chrissie Kapustka told the council the city was not recommending the state's 2 a.m. option. Existing dispensaries would need a special use allowance to add a drive-through, she said. Three council members voted against receiving the draft.

Kapustka also described the state's part of the process: dispensaries must get state approval before opening a drive-through, and the state will review their point-of-sale systems to make sure sales at the counter and through the window are properly tracked, she said.

What happens next

The Crystal Lake City Council's Nov. 17 meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall, according to the city's meeting calendar. If the council approves the permit amendment, Ivy Hall would still need IDFPR to review and approve its floor plan, security plan and procedures before the drive-thru can open, under the department's guidance.

This report summarizes state guidance, public notices and news coverage. It is not legal advice.