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Waite Park planning commission recommends correcting zoning code to align cannabis retail rules
Summary
The Waite Park Planning Commission unanimously recommended a zoning-code amendment Feb. 11 to add permitted cannabis retail and on-site uses to the B3 Second Street Corridor district after staff said the uses were inadvertently omitted when the city updated its cannabis ordinance.
Waite Park — The Waite Park Planning Commission on Tuesday recommended that the City Council amend the city zoning code to add several cannabis retail and on‑site uses to the B3 Second Street Corridor district, correcting what staff described as an inadvertent omission when the council adopted a new cannabis ordinance in December.
City staff explained the change during a public hearing at City Hall on Feb. 11. The request would add the underlined language in the proposed amendment (items f, g, h and i in the packet) to section 52.28, Subdivision 2, of Ordinance 52 so that the B3 district matches the B1 and B2 commercial districts for permitted cannabis uses. "We missed it on the first go around," a city staff member, John, told the commission, describing the omission discovered after the ordinance was approved last year.
The amendment is intended to align permitted uses across commercial zoning districts so that the larger B3 corridor is not effectively prohibited from retail cannabis and related on‑site activities. Staff said a public hearing notice was published and that no written or spoken public comments were received before or during the hearing.
A commissioner asked whether item I in the draft language was redundant with an existing item E; John agreed and said the redundant item could be struck before the measure goes to the City Council. Commissioner Bob Chair moved to close the public hearing; the motion passed. A subsequent motion to approve the edits as underlined, with the agreed deletion of the redundant entry, passed by voice vote with all members present.
The commission’s action is a recommendation; the amendment will return to the City Council for final consideration at a later meeting after the city publishes the ordinance for council hearing and action. Mayor Ken Schmidt attended and offered brief remarks thanking the commission for its service, but he did not participate in the commission’s vote.
The commission also approved minutes from its Dec. 10 meeting earlier in the session and heard a staff update about a citywide rollout of two‑factor authentication for city email accounts. No other substantive land‑use items were on the Feb. 11 agenda, and Chair Jansky indicated there may not be a March meeting unless items are filed for consideration.
