— A recent presentation over Zoom went into the details of what is and is not allowed for a cannabis business in Alexandria.
The presentation, “Clearing the Haze,” was a Listen and Learn event offered by the Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, and was held Dec. 11.
Jarrett Kujava, health educator with Horizon Public Health, discussed the ordinances in place both for the City of Alexandria and Douglas County.
“Both of these government entities have ordinances in place, kind of discussing and talking about the public use of cannabis,” Kujava said. “The only difference here is that the ordinances are named differently. Both the City of Alexandria and Douglas County have buffer zones in place.
“They do differ a little bit,” Kujava said. “The City of Alexandria is a little bit more strict when it comes to (the) density of cannabis businesses. Douglas County talks about daycares and places of religious worship. But the main difference here is that Alexandria does not have a retail registration cap, when Douglas County allows for the cap of up to four retail registrations.”
Further insight was provided by Community Development Director Mike Weber.
“Our process is going to allow the market and the buffer limits … to kind of organically establish how the local growth in that industry is regulated locally,” Weber said.
Cannabis businesses are typically going to be located in commercial zoning districts, either B1 or B2, Weber said.
“You think about the half block on either side of Highway 29 or Broadway through the downtown area, Third Avenue, North Nokomis — those are all … in our commercial zoning districts,” Weber said.
There are a few places in the city codes that address cannabis and cannabis businesses, he said.
“The state actually does the licensing,” Weber said. “We do registration of cannabis businesses, and then our zoning ordinance addresses the cannabis uses.”
The city defers to the state description of what qualifies as a cannabis business, Weber said.
“That sets the overarching template for what’s a cannabis business, and then we define a cannabis retail as well since most of the potential uses are going to be retail uses within our zoning ordinances,” he said.
Lower potency hemp edibles are allowed as a permitted use, which means there is no conditional use permit or special use permit variance required of them, Weber said.
“It could be a cannabis retail license or an endorsement authorizing the retail sale of cannabis products,” Weber said. “That’s allowed as a permitted use in our zoning district.”
Cannabis delivery services and cannabis transportation are allowed as permitted uses, he added.
“We also allow cannabis as an accessory use,” Weber said. “So if you have a … licensed cannabis business and you’re doing transportation or delivery, that is allowed as an accessory use to that licensed cannabis business.”
There are also some carve-outs for cannabis and hemp product manufacturing, Weber said.
“That’s accessory to craft breweries, craft wineries or craft distilleries,” he said. “That’s also allowed as an accessory use.”
There is also cannabis cultivation for research or educational purposes, Weber said.
“That has to be accessory to a college, university or similar institution of higher learning,” he said. “Not just everybody can say, ‘I’m going to do some cannabis cultivation for research purposes in my basement.’ That’s probably not going to fly.”
Cannabis cultivation is allowed up to 15,000 square feet indoors as a conditional use, Weber said.
So far, two conditional use permits of this type have been issued in the city, Weber said.
“We haven’t set a cap on the number of registrations we’ll allow,” he said. “We have set buffers. Again, this is for retail license or retail endorsement. It has to be located not within 150 feet of any school as we define in our city code. That distance is measured from the interior portion of the building that contains the cannabis retailer.”
Additionally, there is a buffer of 1,000 feet — roughly three blocks — from any other cannabis business, Weber said.
Cannabis retailers are also required to operate a video surveillance system that’s installed, designed and operated in compliance with the state statute, Weber said.
“That’s also part of our zoning ordinance,” he said. “So when somebody comes to us with a zoning request, we have to establish that the video surveillance system is already installed and operational.”Weber continued, “A cannabis retail use is not allowed to share a common entrance or premises with a building that’s licensed as a tobacco products shop. So you can’t have somebody who’s in the tobacco business also in the cannabis business on the same property.”
To view the presentation, visit
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIAllY4T0eU
.
