Grant County adopts cannabis ordinance and delegation; sets procedures and schedules fees for later approval

The Grant County Board approved a county cannabis ordinance after receiving a final draft from a temporary cannabis committee and a presentation from Public Health staff. The ordinance includes civil-penalty language, setback rules for different licensing types, and a process for temporary-event licensing; the committee added lottery language for the rare case that two paper applications arrive at the same time.

Public Health staff said the county's ordinance should be in place before retail registration opens on Sept. 22 and explained that most cities and townships intend to delegate cannabis regulation to the county. Staff noted that some municipalities (Elbow Lake, Norcross) had not yet responded.

Separately, the board approved administrative procedures (a registration workflow prepared by Horizon Public Health) so staff can manage applications without redoing the ordinance in the future. The board also accepted a proposed local fee schedule but reserved the right to revisit fees yearly; some fees are capped by state statute and not subject to local control. Commissioners discussed whether renewal fees (which were proposed to be retained by Public Health to cover enforcement costs) should be shared with the sheriff for enforcement; staff said fee allocation and enforcement-cost accounting will be examined further.

The ordinance becomes effective only after publication for the legally required period (publication and summary requirements were discussed). The board directed staff to finalize fee amounts and local procedures and to ensure required publication language is included in the ordinance packet before it becomes effective.

Next steps: staff to finalize and publish the ordinance summary, clarify fee allocation between enforcement and Public Health, and return with any edits to the procedures or fee schedule during the annual review cycle.