Clear skies. Low 18F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..
Clear skies. Low 18F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: November 25, 2024 @ 11:10 pm
MANKATO — People shopping for marijuana and other high-potency cannabis-derived products will have a choice among as many as four retail stores in Mankato, all of them likely to be on the city’s east side, under an ordinance approved by the City Council Monday night.
Sales won’t be underway until state licensing is finalized, which is expected to occur sometime in 2025, although legal challenges are already being filed against state regulators by would-be sellers elsewhere in Minnesota.
Most of the rules surrounding cannabis cultivation, sales and use were already established at the state Capitol when lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz reached agreement on legalization legislation in the spring of 2023. The law made pot growing and possession legal for personal use by adults age 21 and older and began the lengthy regulatory preparations at the newly created state Office of Cannabis Management for the licensing of retail sales and commercial production.
Local jurisdictions like cities and counties can’t opt out of legalization, City Attorney Pam Whitmore told the council.
“The city does not have the ability to say no to any of those businesses,” Whitmore said.
A small but significant number of details, though, were left to local elected officials via city and county ordinances, including whether to allow more than the state-mandated minimum number of shops and where in a community the retailers and cannabis production businesses could be located.
State law requires a city to permit at least one retail store selling higher-potency marijuana products for every 12,500 residents. For Mankato’s current population, that means a minimum of four — and that lowest-possible-number is what city leaders preferred in drafting the city’s ordinance.
In earlier discussions, no one on the seven-member council called for increasing the number and council members were also in agreement with city staff to tightly limit where the pot shops could be located.
If future cannabis entrepreneurs or customers were upset about the approach, it wasn’t apparent in the months-long process of drafting and finalizing the local rules, which are split between a trio of ordinances.
“As of today, we have not received any public feedback on any of these three items,” said City Manager Susan Arntz.
At the public hearing before the council unanimously approved all three, just one person spoke — a man who suggested that Mankato as a regional center for shopping should have three or four times as many cannabis stores as the proposed rules allow.
“We’re a retail hub,” he said. “I feel 10 to 15 is probably a fair number.”
Council President Mike Laven said he’s heard similar sentiments from some people in the community but agrees with the rest of the council that the city is better off starting cautiously and easing restrictions later if it’s warranted.
“I think that’s absolutely fair,” Whitmore said, characterizing Mankato’s approach as “middle of the road” compared with regulations being established in other cities she works with. “There are so many unknowns right now.”
Mankato’s ordinance establishes a 1,000 foot restricted zone around schools and 500 feet around licensed day care facilities, residential drug treatment facilities and parks containing features attractive to young people. That’s as large a buffer as the state allows, and some cities are going with much smaller buffer zones such as 300 feet.
In addition, the high-potency pot stores will be limited to B-3 business zones and light manufacturing zones, both of which are primarily on Mankato’s east side. Between the buffers and the zoning rules, there appear to be no legal spots for pot shops in potentially lucrative locations near downtown Mankato or adjacent to Minnesota State University. There may be only a few parcels in the entire valley portion of the city — between Third Avenue and North Riverfront Drive — that don’t run afoul of one restriction or the other.
The tightest restrictions in the new ordinance apply only to high-potency products. The already legal sale of lower potency hemp-derived edibles and beverages would continue to be allowed in much broader swaths of Mankato. Those hemp products are available everywhere from liquor stores to gas stations and can be sold any time the stores are open. Stores selling higher-potency cannabis products would have more limited hours — 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. — under the ordinance.
Along with retail sales, the ordinances approved Monday night regulate firms involved in growing of marijuana plants and the manufacture of cannabis products. In both instances, the enterprises would need to be located in industrial zones.
Another of the three pot-related ordinances deals with rules around “temporary cannabis events.” State lawmakers require cities to allow the events, lasting up to four days, where vendors can congregate to educate customers about their cannabis options. But Mankato will be imposing several limitations, including the same buffer zone as for pot shops and a prohibition on consumption of cannabis at the event.
Cannabis events in Mankato will be prohibited, too, from public places such as parks and in “places of public accommodation,” which generally includes retail stores, theaters, arenas, stadiums, government buildings, educational institutions, recreational facilities, public parking lots, grocery stores and markets, among others.
And the ordinance allows fees to be charged to event organizers to cover the city’s administrative and Public Safety Department costs.
A third ordinance governs the registration process for starting a cannabis business. While the state will decide who does and doesn’t get a license, the license-holders must also register with the city to ensure that they meet zoning requirements and other local rules such fire codes.
The provisions in the ordinances will take effect as soon as 30 days after the revised language is officially published in The Free Press.
Whitmore warned the council that they would be having more discussions about cannabis, though, as the Legislature makes adjustments in the future, as legal cases play out and as state regulations are finalized.
“I think it will be constantly changing,” she said.
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