for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the standice. All right. Are there any changes to the agenda? Okay. Anyone want to make a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Who would like to second? I'll second it. Right. All in favor? I. All right. No public comment. It looks like um announcements. There are no announcements. Then approval of the July 30th, 2024 meeting minutes. I didn't notice anything. I thought they looked pretty good. I don't know if anybody else saw anything. I didn't see anything. I'll make a motion to approve. All right. Second. All right. Brad second. All in favor? I I Okay. Public hearings. Um zoning ordinance amendment title 115-5-5 fences application requirements. Um so the changes to the ordinance were essentially just to remove the option for a site plan. Um so now we are requiring an actual certificate of survey. That's the only change. Okay. So, I'll open the public hearing at 7:08 p.m. Can I close it? Yeah, it'll No one's in attendance, so I'll close the public hearing at 7:09 p.m. Anyone have questions on the change? No, I think it's probably a good idea because people worry about where they think their property line is. Yeah. And in practice, we've been requiring a survey, but we kind of caught that in the language. It it allowed for a survey or a site plan. So, um, if somebody would have pressed us on it, we they just got to find their stakes, too. Right. Or is it the actual We require that they be able to identify their property pins before they place a fence. Yeah. The stakes. Okay. Yep. And we do an inspection before we allow the fence to go in. What if a pin is missing? Then you have to hire a surveyor to place the pin. Okay. Okay. So, you just need an approval from us. Uh recommendation to the city council. Okay. I'll make a recommendation for the change in the amend the zoning ordinance amendment for fences. Okay. So moved. All right. All in favor? I I Okay. All right. General business. A draft zoning ordinance amendment detached accessory structures. So we've been discussing this since February of this year. discussions so far provided us with several recommendations to include any potential ordinance amendment. So we compiled all those recommendations from over the months for final review before the commission before a public hearing scheduled. We spent this much time on it. So I just kind of wanted to have one more meeting in order to go before we take this to public hearing. So the recommendations are as follows. Uh there's seven of them. So we're going to amend the for height to just the vertical distance to be measured from the finished building to the highest point of growth for properties 1 acre and undert maximum floor area allowed. Remove all language related to conditional use permits. The same for properties greater than one acre except it's 2,000 square foot max area allowed. No more than two detached accessory buildings per lot except by permit. Maximum building height Accessory structures increased to 20 ft must not exceed the height of the principal structure. No access or driveway requirements shall be active for any of the accessories structures. Uh detached accessory units or shall be considered the same as detached accessory buildings for size standards. So changes are recommend recommended tonight. Staff will draft final ordinance amendment for discussion at an upcoming meeting for public hearing. It's already unless there's changes. I think we're all set to go next month. Was there something about sighting shingles or I mean that it matches or Yeah, that's I thought it would pages and we're actually language. That's kind of our goal is try to simplify ordinance. I thought it looked good. I don't know if others. Okay. So, we just need a recommendation. I do have one question. So, we're talking about matching the the housing structures and whatnot. So, is that gonna eliminate a lot of the like metal buildings? That's already public hearing for next month's meeting. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Um B, draft zoding ordinance amendment residential district landscaping requirements. This item came up in the July meeting. Towards the end of the meeting, several commissioners discussed desire to expand the list of trees that currently count towards the two required trees for subdivisions and existing resial lots. So staff reached out to me to see if he had recommendations for additional species that would do well in the city. Here's the list he provided us. So we have pictures here. Ohio Buckeye his good mediumiz tree. There's no real cons, right? It's not a pretty tree. It's good for longer streets, but it does have seed pods, so that's something to consider. Frontier elm is a species of elm that's Dutch elm disease resistant as well as the patriot elm bitter hickory also has some large fruit seeds it's native tree to southern Minnesota that fast multiple times Red maple. It's especially good for wet sites ash. It's actually not an ash tree and the berries can be messy. This would be an ornamental tree. And the caniferous tree that's recommended to be removed is actually already covered under this. We're not getting rid of any trees with this recommended list. Just adding there's any discussion on any of the trees in particular. What's wrong with the black hill spruce though? What's wrong with black? Nothing. Okay. It's just it was on there twice. Oh, I see. Black spruce. I see. I see. I think it looks good. Um, thanks for looking into that. And so if any trees are not on this list and they're not able to be planted, is that correct? We have a prohibited list. Those are the only trees that cannot be planted. Other trees can be if they're not on the two trees. Got it. Okay, I'm good with the list. changes. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. See, draft zoning ordinance amendment cannabis regulation. Just getting set up here. Okay. Okay. So, the context of this um I think I had just in my mind um I'll go through this PowerPoint presentation and then I'll have some recommendations needed from you guys at the end and then if you just want to ask me anything cannabis related questions that you might have that could be good too at the end. Um all right so in May of 2023 um cannabis was legalized in Minnesota. Is it not? That's on me. Cool. Right. So, in 2023, um cannabis was legalized in Minnesota. Um the law went into effect on August 1st of that year and then upcoming in 2025 the licenses will begin to be dispersed from the office of cannabis management. Uh so this new law allows for 13 different types of businesses. Um business licensing related to cannabis um each fulfilling a unique role in the cannabis and hemp supply chain. Um so hemp plants and marijuana plants are both the same species. Um, legally hemp is defined as a cannabis plant that contains.3% or less THC while marijuana is over.3 uh% THC. And um I just want put a little note here on the first slide saying that you'll see information regarding outdoor cultivation, but uh we're trying to avoid having that anywhere in the city, but I'm waiting on Andrea to let me know if that's going to be okay or not. So now I'm just going to go through the definitions of all the different businesses. So, you guys know what I'm talking about. Um, a micro business. Uh, it can cultivate cannabis and manufacture the products, um, and package them for sale to customers or another licensed cannabis business. Um, they can only operate one single retail location and it includes alo indoor uh, cultivation of plants up to 5,000 square feet. Um, a mezzo business um may operate up to three retail locations and it includes cultivation of up to 15,000 square feet. Um, the only caveat is that the retail locations can't be on the same site as the grow operation. A cultivator is just what it sounds like. Um it's yeah it cultivates cannabis and packages it uh for sale to another licensed retailer uh most of the time and it includes indoor cultivation of up to 30,000 square feet. A manufacturer, the middleman, may manufacture the cannabis products um and package the products for sale to a licensed retailer. And the retailer itself, otherwise known as a dispensary, um sells the immature cannabis plants, seedlings, cannabis products, hemp products, and any other products that are authorized by the OCM. Um, a wholesaler may produce and or sell immature cannabis plants and seedlings, cannabis or their products um from another licensed cannabis business. Wholesalers may also import hemp derived consumer products and lower potency hemp edibles. A transporter um transports the immature cannabis plants and the seedlings um to other licensed cannabis businesses. testing facility. Um this they may obtain and test the immature plants, seedlings, products, and hemp products from licensed cannabis businesses. Um an event organizer, they have the ability to organize temporary cannabis events that last no more than four days. Uh delivery service purchase it and then with the retail endorsement, um they're allowed to transport and deliver to customers. Medical uh cannabis combination business. Um they can cultivate, they can manufacture and then they can package and um sell the goods and they can have up to one location, one retail location in each congressional district. Then lower potency hemp edible manufacturer. Um they manufacture and package just lower potency hemp edibles for consumer sale and sell hemp concentrate and lower potency hemp edibles to other cannabis businesses. And same thing here except they're the retailer. Okay, so here's where I need your guys direction. Um, so this is kind of the main one I wanted from you at least and then um just a general one after this. So does the planning commission want to establish a buffer zone prohibiting the operations of any cannabis business within a certain distance of schools, daycarees, residential treatment facilities, parks, or other cannabis retail businesses. Um, and I thought we'd just go through these one through three and the 0 to 10,000. The 10,00 is the maximum that we are allowed to regulate based on the statute. So, figure we'll just start with the first one. Do we want to have any um stipulations on a buffer zone for schools? Obviously, right now we have the one school, but you know, this ordinance will be here for as time goes on. So, kind of have to think about that in that frame, too. I would say 1,000 ft, but I'd have any other like regulations for liquor stores. No, I guess why not? They're both legal. I agree with Casey on that one. If there aren't any restrictions, if we didn't do that for alcohol, why would we do that for cannabis? I agree 100%. Yeah. And I'm thinking do it for alcohol. We don't. No. But then again too, if we're not going to allow growing at home, do we allow people to brew their own beer at home? Uh we do allow growing at home actually. It's part of the statute. They can have up to I think it's six plants. Okay. So this the growing is basically being on site in the location, right? For the in this context or nearby. Oh, okay. Gotcha. So you can an individual can grow at home up to six plants but this is just for the businesses for your for personal use. Yeah. So really we don't have any between um liquor stores or schools or daycarees. We don't have any. I didn't not realize that. I just think that'd be written. I mean kids are going to find we don't regulating it. If we're not regulating we had something regulating explicit business at one time. Yes, we have that right. Yeah. The only um item that we have like buffer distances from certain from other uses is sexually oriented businesses. Yeah. Well, my concern at doing this now is would we also be limiting um those that uh medicinal cannabis like dispensaries like that don't do recreational but just do medicinal? Would we be zoning them out if we were to do something like this? It's my interpretation that they all fall under the same umbrella. Oh, so yes. to see much by our schools. I mean, I don't know about commercial or industrial crow facility by our school even because we have it zoned for mostly residential around. Right. Yeah. That's why I say I don't think it's a real problem. We could even say liquor stores too if you wanted to or go into the liquor but that would be it's a different subject. I'm just saying if you want to be equal with it, I just don't see anything going to be built by our school be industrial or that would work within the kind of the closest um potential retail area where it could be retailed is we have some area along County Road 2 and County Road 27 kind of you know down from the firehouse but closer to the County Road 27 intersection. So it could be quarter mile quarter mile or so. Maybe not quite. The new market downtown district. I mean, how does that limit them from like the church, the parks? Um I guess I don't even know how many parks are this way, right? I just don't think you should limit it. I mean, I'm not a user, but I just think if it's it's got to be fair either way. I I agree with you, Cynthia. One or the other to be Well, how about for example or context? say in the strip mall uh right over here with this the Anytime Fitness or whatever that is. Now, what if there's a dispensary or somebody wants to explore that as an option? So, would that be an option or would I I don't how or are the houses Yes. I I don't know how close the homes are right there to that and they're pretty close. Yeah. But then again, but it's not home that was dayare. Yeah, but somebody could have a residential daycare. I know that when we were interviewing daycarees, there were three back there, by the way. So, I I don't want to ruin anybody's business, but is there enough distance, say, between that mall and the nearest homes to be able to You got a whole new strip mall that's already there could be a daycare and dispensary in that whole strip mall. Correct. I don't think you should limit it. Okay. I just don't know how well the daycare would do. Well, it it really I mean realistically I'm just trying to think like in a bigger picture, right? So, if someone were to open this type of business and there is a daycare, I don't know that they would necessarily look at that location. They might be a little bit choosy. Maybe the daycare would be a little bit choosy. I I don't know. I guess I think and that's up to the business operator and I agree with you. I think another way to look at it, too, is that, you know, if we're comparing it to liquor, like it would be easier for somebody in a daycare to get into a liquor store than it would be to get into a cannabis store. The amount of security there is unbelievable. Yes. So, there I don't think we should limit it. I don't I don't think so either. I think if we do, it's kind of picking on one and not the other. Just to add to whoever's point about the distance between the strip malls, it's 1,000 feet includes a lot of houses for both strip malls. No, I don't I don't think it should be limited. I don't know how others feel. Okay. Well, I heard a three to I heard 32, so I guess I don't know where I feel there should be some distance, but I don't know. I would agree maybe some distance, but again with the liquor stores it's hard to pick on one and not the other. I see where you're coming from on that. Sixth grader came into a cannabis store. I'm sure that I doubt that would Right. I'm just They're easier to get into the liquor store like he said. Yeah, they have security at the door in the liquor store. Yeah, that's retail operations. Do they have to have um retail operations have to have a a door security guard? But there are three different items. There's schools, there's parks, residential, daycare. I mean, you could put numbers on each one or no numbers on putting no numbers on either one of them. Same. Same. I'm against that idea. That's totally fine. That's what this is for. So, All right. Um, I hear a 3-2 and I will bring that recommendation to the council that we are interested in no buffer zones. Okay. Awesome. I do think it's important that um the council know that it wasn't unanimous. Yeah, absolutely. I'll give them all the context for sure. Okay. And then the final kind of I don't know how to ask this I guess or if just an open-ended what's your opinion? Um, do we see anything that seems like it doesn't make sense here? Um, or if you want my logic behind why I might have done something and then overall get to the point of recommending that this or some different variation of this would be recommended to the city council. This is just showing where everything's permitted. P means permitted. Um, no. Yeah. special permission and conditional use permit that would require city council approval. So, as you can see here, we're basically guiding um except for just the retail part of it um the manufacturing warehouse distribution of the plants to the industrial type zoning districts. Um the I1 and the I2 districts are on basically the east side of the interstate. Uh but that B6 uh campus, we uh that would be a zoning district that would be eligible on the west side of the interstate on the Adelman property. And if you want to bring us uh we could bring up the comprehensive plan map to show you um where that would be allowed. But um isn't that also on the corner up here too? roundabout. No, that is uh that would be uh B5. So, um you can see that there's the retail operations would were basically suggesting that they be permitted in any retail zoning district. It's kind of like a tobacco shop or it's just retail. What about the B5 then? Uh B5 is um your general commercial district that you'll see along County Road 2 going out towards the interstate. You might see that same district out near the um corner of County Road 2 and 27 on the far west side of the community as we grow that way. So that um that corridor along County Road 2 is where we would see B5. B4 is going to be right out at the interchange highway. It's called the highway commercial. You trying to share that? Um could you the comp plan map would be better? Okay. Um, can you actually go into the comp plan? Um, I think there's a couple different Yeah, there. Um, oh, I'm sorry. Can you go back? Um, yeah, go down to the land use chapter and that one that was updated 101. Oh, go back up. Chapter six, right? Yeah. Up up up to Okay. So, um can can you point out on your does your mouse work? No, I think I can see his mouse. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, uh, can you point out the, um, business limited industrial on the Adelman property? That light pink. Um, not that one. That next one up. Yeah, that light all that light pink. Yeah, there. And then south of two, that light pink. Okay. Okay. Um, so the manufacturing warehouse distribution would could be permitted on a smaller scale in those areas. Okay. On a bigger scale on the east side of the interchange. Okay. And then pretty much anywhere you see pink or blue along the county road 2 corridor, retail would be allowed. And would you confirm? Yeah. Smoke shops like tobacco shops or anything like that, right? Excuse me. Yeah. We don't have any like when you mentioned um like a tobacco shop, it just clicked in my head like we don't have any regulations on that like for distance. No. No. When I was going through the ordinance and creating these, I compared it exactly like it was any like it wasn't cannabis was what I was thinking my friend. So, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And we really had that same thing in mind, especially when we're talking about the retail, right, where um liquor or tobacco shops would be allowed that this could kind of be similar at the retail part of it. The grow the manufacturing warehouse distribution is different. There are smells associated with the growing. So um we more industrial might be right. So the smells associated with it is a big a big deal and that's kind of why we chose to go the conditional use permit route for all of it so we can make sure that we add adequate you know stipulations to air scrubbers or filtration and that makes sense and especially with the lingering question of can we prohibit outdoor grow completely then it's just a safer route for us to take and that's what your that caveat is. Okay. Yeah. So, we've talked about it internally and we think if there are outdoor grow operations, maybe they belong out in the country like in Market Township. Yeah. Or in a in a rural area, not in a in an urban city. Okay. So, we're not suggesting that be permitted. I agree with that. I agree as well. I think what you had Mhm. It makes sense. It makes sense. Okay. I ask a question. Can we have a brewery like in downtown? It's whatever matched up. You can answer it better than I can, Rene. But um yeah, your typical your typical brewery like B2. No, they don't do broke. Who? No, it's B2. B2 downtown. It can go anywhere. B2. Yeah. Um there are a number kind of like cannabis stores. There are a number of different types depending on how much you make, the volume that you're manufacturing. So, not all of them would be allowed downtown, but um and I can pull up the zoning ordinance to like stuff like that. Yeah, like that would be allowed in our downtown. Okay. Has the township discussed this is all? The county is working on their ordinance. Yeah. And the county and us are still in conversations about who's going to take over like the license registration aspect of it. So that's kind of the big question we're waiting to get answered right now. What do other how does it work in other towns and counties? We're pretty ahead. Uh I don't have many comparables at all. So I'm just curious. Yeah. Um, for liquor and tobacco, the city licenses uh liquor businesses. It's a separate business license that's issued by the city council. You have to meet certain criteria, background checks and stuff like that. Um, for tobacco, the county is doing our licensing for us. Okay. Currently, um, I think we would support the county absolutely doing the licensing for the, um, cannabis as well, but we don't know that yet. We have a meeting with them next month to discuss it. So, Okay. And you're still exploring a municipal cannabis dispensary? No. No. The city council um shut that down. So, we're no longer going in that direction. Well, for now, they said at least the revenue would have been nice. It would have. But I I don't want to speak for the council, but I think the general consensus was that the risk was too large and the upfront cost was a lot. And yeah, Brandon uh worked with a consultant to um help guide the city through that process. It was very expensive. Phase one was $30,000 and that's before even getting into location type like thing. So, it was going to be a really expensive venture and I guess that they didn't want to put their eggs all into that basket. And there might be competition, you know, there might be a lot of um the new thing, there might be a lot of people looking to start businesses and some members of the council just adamantly didn't feel that government should be competing with private business. So, I think it was kind of a combination of those two reasons. Okay. Well, Northfield is going for a municipal dispensary. Are they? Yeah. I saw them in the work group earlier this or last week. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. upgrades tax revenue because all their liquor stores are it's a lot less enticing for cities over 12,500 population because you know you can maximize the amount of licenses for 12,000 and under. So we could say everybody else can only get one but we also get one. So with Lakeville I think big bigger cities would have way more competition and the market would become quickly saturated is my personal opinion. So come to Northfield. [Laughter] So unless there's any other questions or anything, I'll recommend to the council that or I'll pass along your recommendation to the council that the zoning placed before you today was acceptable. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you guys. All right. Um miscellaneous community community development updates. Um I really don't have any updates. A couple of projects that we're working on that might be at the next meeting at the next planning commission meeting is if you recall Parkway Meadows, the development north of City Hall off the east end of James Parkway. Um the city council approved the preliminary plat on that development with the conditions that the planning commission recommended which was the addition of three elimination of three of the lots and adding that that to the park dedication and a temporary culde-sac at the south end of Riley Road. Um the developers continued to analyze the development based on those recommendations and he's trying to apparently it's really tight with costs. So he has indicated he's going to be applying for an amendment to the preliminary plat layout on the south half of the site. So that might be before you next month. Um and then we are working with a developer who has submitted a concept plan for Dakota Acres second edition. Um we might be bringing that back. It's or next month it's to be determined. More town houses. So yeah, right now I think there was uh 18 town homes and then an apartment building a 36 unit apartment building as well all on the same site. So I don't think it's coming next month. I don't think we'll be right. It It's very preliminary. It's like a one-page concept plan at this point. I would agree. Where is that? Um north of the on the way to the school. It's on James on the way to the school townhouse where that exit just got closed. Or Yeah. The entrance exit. Yeah. So then outside of that Yeah. Now it does. So, we'll for sure have the public hearing on the detach accessory structure ordinance. Uh the public hearing on the cannabis um ordinance um and the public hearing on the landscaping requirements for sure. Okay. What's happening with Barness? Yeah, that's exactly I was just going to ask it was purchased um so it's no longer Bars's property. Okay. Nick who owns Enzone and then um what's his last name? Frank Cass Cassa from New Craig. Um they don't really have any plans at this point, but they're just kind of in there looking at the property and taking down some trees. Who's doing the maintenance of the silk fence on the roadway? That should be Nick. Yeah, we did talk to them a little bit about that, but um who's the enforcer? I guess what's the enforcement behind it? I guess there is none. Um, you can send them a letter. I don't know. It's I think it'd be initially a phone call. They we met with them uh one time. It was just kind of an introductory meeting and went over what the guidance was under the comprehensive plan, what it could be used for today under the current guidance. Um, and they just kind of took the information and seemed, you know, really wanting to work with the city, but I don't know that they themselves have plans to develop it. I think they might be trying to find a developer for the site. Um, but as far as any erosion, if there are issues, you know, sometimes there have been uh at the driveway uh when in heavy rains some kind of washing out onto the county road. So we've kind of been gently working between public works and well I guess it would be was the barnesses at one time that I don't know if they were enforced upon or you know we were doing enforcement action on them at before they passed. I guess it's got to be maintained. So, yeah. Well, I think it'll look better now with the the current owner, but I think they'll be easier to work with. They buy the equipment with it. I don't think so. I don't think so. Leftover pieces of equipment come with the property. I brought that up at our meeting with them and it sounded like the Bars family is going to get those out of there at some point. Any other questions? Yeah, I don't have a lot of updates. So, I don't have any bills. Okay. Anyone want to do you have any uh township updates? Yeah. last meeting. Okay. I have not heard from them and it's on Yeah, it's definitely on my to-do list, too. It's actually on my list for keeps every day keeps getting pushed. but um to contact your township attorney. Um, I talked to Doug DQ about uh, well, specifically Harvest Drive and um, annexing uh, it becomes problematic when we annex um, rightway that is in the township because you know most of your residents own to the center of the road and then it creates a split of their parcel and there's some pro there's problems with that or challenges with that of split splitting somebody's partial into two legal descriptions and um DQ just suggested that I talk with your attorney about it. Um and then it's tentative that Tom Terry would maybe come to your next uh meeting on Tuesday if there's room for him yet next Tuesday. Um so that's kind of needs to be worked out this week, but that's one thing on my to-do list here. All right. The new pickle ball courts. Are you trying to keep those secret? At the town hall. Nice. That's awesome. That's great. Good for you. Um, we were notified this afternoon that uh Niagara has hired a plant manager um for the plant and they have some of their other jobs posted on um TED's website this time. putting lines over there, water lines or something for the street. Is that building again? I can't recall. We saw it on paper, but 425 or what? 425,000 square feet. How big was Amazon? Uh about 850,000 square feet. This looks like a lot of football fields. Yeah, if you were in there, I'm sure it would be huge. It's like 10 acres under one roof. So, nice to see it. It went up so fast. Surprised they could grade and then walls up. Yeah, I saw Target. When they built Target, it fell down. really built the target up here. Open wall caved. Oh wow. I know that. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, I don't know exactly what happened, but Yeah. Okayone. Anyone want to make a motion to adjurnn the meeting? I'll make a motion to adjourn. Want a second? So moved. All right. All in favor? I. All right. Meeting journed at 7:48 p.m. Thanks. Recording stopped.