Lonsdale Liquor is a municipal-owned liquor store that consistently generates funding for city projects and alleviates the burden of taxpayers. Cities in Rice County could soon run similar businesses selling marijuana.
At Tuesday morning’s Rice County Board of Commissioners meeting, commissioners were presented a drafted ordinance that would regulate the sale and registration of dispensaries in the county. The ordinance is pending approval following a public hearing in late November.
The ordinance draft states that it would only apply dispensaries in the greater Rice County area, Morristown, Nerstrand and Dennison. The registration of said retailers would be handled by the director of property tax and elections or a designee of their choosing.
Dispensaries would need to register with the county and get a license through the state, the latter of which should be approved or pre-approved first. The initial registration fee for the county license would be $500 or half the amount of the initial state license, whichever is less.
That initial fee also covers the first renewal. Annual renewals after that would be $1,000 or half the renewal fee for the state, again whichever is less.
The number of dispensary registrations issued by the county would be capped at one per 12,500 residents, prioritized by the order they’re received. Given the county’s current population, a total of five registrations can be issued by the county at any given time.
However, that cap would not apply to municipal dispensaries or retailers only selling manufacturing lower-potency hemp edibles, nor would those businesses wouldn’t count toward the total registrations in reference to the cap.
Municipal dispensaries would still be subject to annual compliance checks performed by the Rice County Sheriff’s Office, as would all dispensaries and retailers selling the low-potency edibles in the county jurisdiction. A second compliance check would also be conducted on an annual basis, this time unannounced with a person over 17 and under 21 with their parent’s written permission.
Violations would range from $300-$2,000, plus whatever the state decides in response to the complaint. Registrations would also be suspended, and possibly revoked, as Rice County Environmental Services Director Julie Runkel explained to the commissioners.
“And this ordinance encapsulates many of the items that you talked about, which is a cap of one per 12,500 residents,” she said. “It has a setback from schools of 1,000 feet, 500 feet from licensed daycare centers, residential treatment facilities, playgrounds and athletic fields of a public park. It establishes hours of operation, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. That’s corresponds, kind of, with alcohol.”
Also corresponding with liquor laws, if a hemp retailer’s state license allows for on-site consumption, the hours of sale would instead fall in line with the on-sale liquor hours.
"The cities of Faribault, Northfield, Dundas and Lonsdale have not delegated registration authority to the county," Runkel added Wednesday. "Each will have their own registration ordinances for cannabis retailers within their city limits. These non-delegated cities are not obligated to follow the county’s cap, but may have their own."
The caps would limit the county's ability to register the business operations, but wouldn't necessarily limit the non-delegated cities' ability to do so.
"If the combined total number of registrations issued by the non-delegated cities and the county reaches or exceeds the cap, then the county would not be able to register any additional cannabis retailers until the combined total number of registrations dropped below that threshold," Runkel continued. "However, the cities of Faribault, Northfield, Dundas and Lonsdale possibly could issue based on their own ordinances."
IF YOU GO
The public hearing for the dispensary ordinance drafted by Rice County was set for 9 a.m. Nov. 26 at the Rice County Government Services Building at 320 Third St. NW in Faribault.
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