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St. Joseph adopts ordinance limiting cannabis and hemp businesses to one licensed operation
Summary
The City Council adopted Ordinance 614 to establish local cannabis and hemp business regulations, aligning two ordinance provisions with recent state statutory wording and limiting the number of businesses; council approved summary publication and related fee schedule changes were handled in a separate hearing.
The St. Joseph City Council voted June 16 to adopt Ordinance 614, which establishes local regulations for cannabis and hemp businesses and limits the number of such businesses in the city to one, subject to county limits.
City staff and outside counsel Joe Sathy (Kennedy & Graven) told the council a recent legislative change in state cannabis registration terminology required two small clerical edits to the draft ordinance. Sathy said the statute replaced the phrase “license pre‑approval” with “preliminary license approval,” and he recommended updating subdivision 4(a) and section 6(g) so the city ordinance mirrors state language. The council accepted those clerical changes and moved to adopt the ordinance.
The ordinance as adopted also includes municipal licensing and procedures for temporary cannabis events the city cannot ban; staff explained that the municipal license would not count against the single‑business cap and that OCM (state oversight) licensing remains a prerequisite. The council approved the ordinance and then approved a separate motion to authorize summary publication of the ordinance.
Council members made no substantive amendments to the policy during the meeting; the record shows the change discussed by Sathy was framed as technical alignment with state statute rather than a policy shift.
Next steps: staff said they will update administrative materials and the licensing checklist to reflect the adopted terminology and to process any future cannabis registrations in line with state requirements.
