Something I want our residents to know is that there are no buffers or boundaries on anything like this for alcohol or guns and so this is exclusive to Cannabis and we do want to make sure we are keeping areas open for some businesses.”

Councilor Angie Haus

For more information about the city’s Cannabis Ordinance visit the city of Hastings’ website at https://www.hastingsmn.gov/city-government/city-council

To watch the full city council meeting, visit Hastings Community TV’s YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/@HastingsCommunityTV

On Monday, November 18, the Hastings City Council met for a first reading for the new rules regarding Cannabis Business Zoning. These changes involved one zoning ordinance amendment and three amendments to the city code in order to dictate where businesses that sell, manufacture, and cultivate Cannabis can be located within the city as well as Cannabis event permits and a new odor ordinance for the city.
Cannabis Ordinances
The Monday night meeting concerning Cannabis ordinances was built upon several previous workshops and a meeting of the Planning Commission who all discussed changes to the proposed ordinances from recommendations from the State of Minnesota as well as from City Attorney Kori Land.
Based on Minnesota Law, Hastings must allow one dispensary per 12,500 residents meaning Hastings must at least allow one dispensary within city limits although it can allow more. Hastings cannot cap the number of low potency Cannabis businesses that sell Cannabis products containing less than 0.3% THC, like Cannabis seltzers.
A key issue discussed over the work sessions as well as at the Monday night meeting was that of buffers surrounding where Cannabis retailers are allowed. At the Monday night meeting, the city councilors agreed on a less restrictive set of buffer rules for Cannabis retailers. The buffers are meant to remove Cannabis retailers from close proximity to schools, rehabilitation centers and other properties.
The Cannabis ordinance voted on at the meeting mandates that Cannabis retailers must be at least 1,000 feet from other Cannabis retailers, at least 500 feet from schools, 500 feet from residential treatment facilities, and 500 feet from park attractions with the caveat that the buffer ends at highways and doesn’t apply to the downtown corridor.
The comparison of Cannabis retailers to liquor stores and bars was a common one during these discussions of buffers and strict regulation of dispensaries. “Something I want our residents to know is that there are no buffers or boundaries on anything like this for alcohol or guns and so this is exclusive to Cannabis and we do want to make sure we are keeping areas open for some businesses,” said Councilor Angie Haus.
Much of the ordinance was styled as pro-business for the burgeoning Cannabis industry. In limiting the size of buffers, councilmembers explicitly made more of the Highway 61 corridor open to potential Cannabis retailers. “One of the things we agree on is that we don’t want to make it hard to do business in our community,” said Councilor Lisa Leifeld.
Councilor Jen Fox agreed calling the less-restrictive ordinance a “pro-business model.”
Other considerations discussed at the meeting were the changes to the registration process and event permits for Cannabis businesses.
Many of the specifics are still unclear when it comes to how the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) will deal with taking over the licensing process. In turn, how Hastings will handle local registration for businesses coming from the OCM with state licenses is also unclear: “We don’t know what all this is going to look like or how it’s going to unfold so we will just play it by ear,” said Land.
An example Land spoke about for this ambiguity is the terms for registration. The initial ordinance had the registration term as consistent with the license term as valid for the rest of the calendar year in the year the license was applied within. That was not the case for the OCM. “In the FAQs, not in a rule, not in a law, but in the FAQ of the Office of Cannabis Management, they said their license term will run whenever it gets approved,” said Land. Hastings city ordinance will change upon the second reading to follow suit with the OCM. This discrepancy is indicative of the continued issues plaguing the OCM concerning the lack of regulation on Cannabis years after legalization as well as lack of communication for upcoming rules.
Councilmember Dave Pemble highlighted this concern: “My only concern in all of this is that as we put this all together, the legislature is going to meet again on Jan. 20 and after the last two sessions and how things change, that we will be coming back to deal with this somewhere along the way.”
Cannabis Event Permits
Hastings Cannabis event permits are designed to encompass the inclusion of Cannabis products like seltzers into other events held in the city. “It’s not just going to be a Cannabis event, where you have basically a ‘weed dabbler,’ where that’s all it is. You are going to have the beverage guy who wants to come to one of your events: Rivertown days. They are going to want to come and have their Cannabis beverage tent,” said Land.
When it comes to allowing Cannabis at events, the rules are designed to be strict. Cannabis events must receive city council approval and must take place on private property unless explicitly allowed elsewhere by the city council. Details including entrance and exit plans, waste plans, which vendors will be attending etc. must be provided in order for the event to receive city approval before the event organizer can then go to the OCM to receive a special event license from the State.
“The laundry list is kind of long. It is longer than probably, what a beer tent has to submit, but that’s because we have to. We are submitting it to the state and we don’t want the state deciding what is appropriate for our parks,” said Land.
The city also requires insurance for the event as well as payment of an escrow fee to recover city expenses if any occur during the event.
Odor Violation
Finally, the city council discussed the creation of an odor ordinance for the city. While this discussion can in the context of Cannabis regulation, the new odor ordinance is meant to apply to all businesses in Hastings.
Determining odor violations requires the use of objective odor standards via the use of tools like nasal rangers, a type of field olfactometer that detects and measures odor dilution. This measurement is not subjective meaning that the smell of a bakery would be judged by the same metrics as a rendering plant and judged by its measurement from such tools. If a business receives complains about odor, city staff or city consultants can use these tools to determine if the odor is in violation of the ordinance.
Initial violations of the odor ordinance will be met with the business being compelled to work with the city to create an odor mitigation plan, and if the issue is not resolved, it will then begin receiving administrative penalties or civil or criminal action.
The odor ordinance came with a recommendation from Land to add a new administrative citation penalty of $10,000 in order to apply a fee to businesses that they wouldn’t easily be able to pay over and over again rather than comply with the ordinance. “Normal administrative citation penalties are about $200. A $200 citation does not go very far with a business. They will pay it and continue to smell bad.” South St. Paul’s continued issues regarding businesses disregarding odor violations was referenced several times during the meeting.
For more information about the city’s Cannabis Ordinance visit the city of Hastings’ website at https://www.hastingsmn.gov/city-government/city-council
To watch the full city council meeting, visit Hastings Community TV’s YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/@HastingsCommunityTV