Minneapolis City Council votes against buffer zones for pot dispensaries

The Minneapolis City Council passed an ordinance Thursday that will allow cannabis dispensaries to begin operating next year without buffers between each other.

City staff had proposed requiring dispensaries to be at least 500 feet from schools and other dispensaries (except downtown), but the City Council opted to scrap the buffer between dispensaries and require a 300-foot buffer from schools. They must also be within a contiguous commercial or industrial area of at least 3 acres.

Council Member Aurin Chowdhury proposed the amendment about the buffer between dispensaries, saying that would bring Minneapolis in line with St. Paul’s rules.

“I’m not interested in just doing what St. Paul does,” Council Member Linea Palmisano said, noting that Minneapolis would have less spacing between dispensaries than cities like Seattle, which stipulates 1,000 feet. San Francisco requires 600 feet and Denver’s rule is 1,000 feet.

Palmisano said she’d like to have a buffer between dispensaries and schools, but Chowdhury said requiring dispensaries to be farther away from schools than liquor stores feels like the city is saying one business is “more moral” than the other. Chowdhury noted the city requires no buffer between tobacco stores and schools.

“We should talk about that,” she said.

Council Member Katie Cashman said not having a buffer between dispensaries would allow the city’s more than 450 existing hemp retailers to get in the business and prevent out-of-state companies from “gobbling up the existing spaces.”

“This will help fill vacant storefronts in our city,” Cashman said.

The ordinance passed 12-1, with Palmisano voting “no,” saying it was because she wanted time to review the issue more carefully.

The ordinance also doesn’t require spacing between dispensaries and day cares, residential treatment facilities or parks because city employees said that would prevent the city from allowing the minimum number of dispensaries required by state statute.

Mayor Jacob Frey said city leaders have been working for years to create an “inclusive, fair, and thoughtful approach to recreational cannabis in Minneapolis,” and the ordinance is an “important piece of the overall framework we’re putting in place to ensure legalization works for everyone.”

The Minnesota Legislature passed the law in 2023 that cleared the way for recreational cannabis sales.