Minneapolis officials are crafting regulations that will dictate where and how recreational cannabis can be grown and sold in the city next year, and right now the plan would allow more cannabis dispensaries to be permitted than new liquor stores or tobacco shops.
The proposed regulations would not require any buffer between dispensaries and day cares, residential treatment facilities or public parks because city employees say that would prevent the city from allowing the minimum number required by state statute.
City staff said the Legislature made it clear cannabis businesses should be “available and accessible,” so recommended the regulations allow dispensaries in pockets of commercially zoned properties, but require them to be within a contiguous commercial or industrial area of at least 5 acres. The Minneapolis Planning Commission amended that to 3 acres on Monday after a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance amendment.
Minneapolis staff had also proposed requiring dispensaries to be at least 500 feet from schools and other dispensaries. Ryan Kronzer, representing the City of Lakes Waldorf School on Nicollet Avenue, asked that the buffer between schools and dispensaries be increased to 700 feet, or the length of a typical north-south city block. But the Planning Commission instead lowered the buffer to 300 feet from schools – the same requirement as liquor stores.
The Minneapolis City Council will later vote on the regulations.
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The state legalized cannabis in 2023, on the heels of hemp edible products the year before, and cannabis businesses should begin operating next year once the state finishes its rule-making, which is expected early next year. Cities and counties cannot ban cannabis businesses, but can regulate odor, lighting, security and noise from cultivation and retail sales.
Cities can cap the number of cannabis retailers at one per 12,500 residents, but Minneapolis’ proposed regulations don’t include a cap. City staff said that will give social equity applicants and those “transitioning from the legacy market to the legal market” enough time to get in the business and prevent a “competitive rush.”