All >> set. >> Mhm. >> All right. I will call to order the November 24th planning commission meeting and move to item number two. Roll call. >> Uh, Commissioner Vat >> here. >> Commissioner Britain >> here. Uh, Commissioner Fischer here. Uh, Chair Frasier has an excused absence as well as Commissioner Canable. Uh, Commissioner Steman >> here. >> And Commissioner Woodman >> here. >> All right. Next, we'll move on to item three, approval of the agenda. I'm looking for a motion to amend the agenda to move item C uh to item A. >> So moved. >> So we have a motion to move. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. And all those in favor signify by saying I >> I the agenda is the agenda is amended. Um next we have open forum. Open forum is the portion of our meeting where if someone would like to speak on something that is not on tonight's agenda then they can approach the podium and we can discuss that topic. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on a topic not on tonight's agenda? Seeing none, I'll close the open forum and proceed to number five, chair's explanation of the hearing process. The planning commission is a volunteer advisory group to the city council. One of the commission's functions is to hold public hearings and make recommendations on land use and zoning matters. The purpose of these public hearings is to provide an opportunity for each applicant and citizens to present information, ask questions, and express opinions. Since these proceedings are televised and recorded for the public record, anyone wishing to speak must step up to the podium and give their name and address before addressing the commission. Staff reports are prepared and provided to the applicant and the planning commission in advance of the meeting. The first step in the hearing will be for staff to present a summary of the report. The applicant will then have the opportunity to briefly explain the proposal and provide additional information or comments. Anyone wanting to speak in favor or against the proposal will then be heard. Upon completion of the testimony, the hearing will be closed to the public comment. The planning commission will then discuss and act on the matter. Two complete agenda packets are available for viewing on the back table. Please do not remove those items. The city council will act on these items at their meeting on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025, which starts at 7 p.m. All right, moving on to public applications. Uh, our amended agenda has the yellow tree apartment case PUD2 2025-030 and SP2025- 030. and we are looking for a motion to to continue the Yellow Tree Apartments case until December. Do I have a motion? >> I will make a motion to continue that case to the December 15th meeting. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes and the Yellow Tree apartment case has been continued to the December meeting. Uh next we will move on to item used to be a uh 96 street low potency cannabis warehouse case cup 2025-029 and uh planner Samantha will be presenting. >> Thank you Mr. Chair and members of the commission. Um, Banks Distro LLC has applied for a conditional use permit to operate a lower potency hemp edible warehouse and wholesale operation at 776995th Street South. Uh, this would be a leased space in a multi-tenant warehouse structure. Um, they would begin by leasing uh 1,520 square ft of space for product storage and a small office. And then as space opens up in the warehouse, they would also move uh product storage to a 2010 square foot warehouse space for some future product storage. Um the existing building is currently occupied by a Mexican food distributor and innovative chemical corporation and both of those uh businesses would stay in the building with banks DRO. The property and the business must comply with city code title 11418. Uh the business will be over a thousand feet from other cannabis or low potency uses and over a thousand feet from schools and residential districts, over 500 ft from daycarees and residential treatment facilities and park attractions. Um just to note the image or the map on your screen is showing the exact distances. So it's not showing those 1,00 ft setbacks. It's showing that exact distance from the proposed storefront. Um the proposal does exceed all of those standards. The applicant must also obtain a city registration and approval from the city council uh before conducting operations on the site. The office of cannabis management oversees statute 342 which was passed by the legislature in 2023. Lower potency hemp edible warehouses must have a physical location in the state of Minnesota. The applicant used to operate out of this exact uh space and do the same low potency hemp edible warehousing before moving to Wisconsin. However, with the new uh rules and regulations, they are moving back to this same facility to have a physical presence in Minnesota as required by the state. Uh OCM uh has also recommended that the applicant obtain a manufacturing license. um that will that will allow them to warehouse and wholesale product. Um at this time the conditional use permit for your consideration tonight does not contain a manufacturing component. Uh it is consider it is added as a condition that if manufacturing is desired on the site that they would come back and obtain a new cup and a new city registration. With that the recommendation is on the screen for your consideration and I will stand for questions. The applicant is also available tonight. >> Thank you. Questions for staff? Seeing none, questions for the applicant? >> Seeing none, is would the applicant like to add anything to the presentation? >> Sure, I will. >> Okay. Please approach the podium and state your name and address for the public record. >> Uh, my name is Michael Weiss. My address is 10300 Citywalk Drive, Woodbury, Minnesota 55129. Um, yes, we basically are moving back into Minnesota. Um, we just need a warehouse right now and an office to ship out products to our um, registered hemp businesses that we sell to currently. Um, we do, however, have ambitions for manufacturing in the future. Right now, all of our manufacturing is done offsite through other third parties. Um, but we do want to bring in stuff like our beverage manufacturing into this location. that is at that is like a six to nine month timeline from now. Um I just wanted to add that into there. Um that is our ambitions. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Any further discussion from the commission at this time? I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against this application? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and further discussion from staff, I mean from the commission. All right. Seeing none, I'll look for a motion. >> I move to recommend approval of the cup subject to the conditions stipulated in the staff report. >> We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion to approve and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed signify by saying nay. Motion passes 50 and that will be on the December 3rd agenda for the city council. Next, we will move on to item 6B, which is the Moonson Moonsoon low potency cannabis case CUP 2025-028 and planner Becker will be presenting. All right. Good evening, uh, members of the commission. Before you tonight is a conditional use permit from Moonsune Tobacco for low potency hemp edible sales. The applicant currently operates a tobacco store, Moonsune Tobacco, in one of the retail spaces in a multi-tenant building on the corner of 80th Street and Hemingway Avenue. The property is zoned mixeduse and lower potency hemp edibles are a conditional use in the mixeduse district. Uh, the property and business must comply with city code title 11418. Notably, the business will be over 1,000 ft from other cannabis or low potency uses. Store hours are 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. However, the sales of lower potency products must be restricted to 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. per city code and will be regulated by the store's point of sale system. A condition has been added to the staff report reflecting the permitted hours of sale. The applicant and the property meet all other applicable standards of the city code for lower potency hemp edible uses. And the applicant must also obtain a city registration prior to conducting sales. Cottage Grove Public Safety conducts by annual compliance checks at all establishments licensed to sell tobacco and THC products. Moonsoon Tobacco did have one failed compliance check recently on October 28th of this year for underage sale. Uh the city has imposed the city council has imposed the scheduled $300 uh penalty and Moonsoon has been cooperative with public safety and is committed to working with compliance officers to ensure training for all of their employees. The Office of Cannabis Management has been overseeing the enactment of statute 342 approved by the legislature in 2023. Businesses must obtain conditional use permit uh approval as well as state lensure and registration with the city um to sell lower potency hemp edibles. The business can conduct sales once they obtain a CUP, state lensure and city registration and pass an OCM inspection. So with that, the recommendation is listed on the screen before you. Um, and the applicant is present tonight as well for any questions. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Any questions for staff? >> Okay. I have one question. So I see the thousand foot radius from other uses. What about schools and churches? Is there a limitation on how close that it can be to schools and churches? >> There is not for the lower potency uses. only um adults cannabis uses. >> Okay. Thank you. Um any questions for the applicant? Does the applicant would the applicant like to say anything? Okay. Seeing none, unless there's questions for the applicant. Seeing none, at this time, I will open the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against this application? Please approach the podium. Seeing none, I will close close the public hearing. Further discussion from staff. Question. >> Uh I have a question for the applicant as far as the compliance check that happened. Um I'm just wondering, she said that you were going to be doing more training or something with the staff. I guess my biggest concern with with all of these applications coming through now is just, you know, the compliance and making sure that they're being sold appropriately. So, I'm just wondering what training steps you're taking to make sure. >> Maybe you can state [clears throat] your name and address for the public record, please. >> Hi, my name is Ramadan Hussein. I'm the owner of Moonstone Tobacco. Um uh yes, unfortunately um and this was the first violation in 36 months. And um I have the store manager here and um we have training every week and a text message reminders every day to the staff. And we had this new employee. She was in the job for about three weeks, about four weeks when when she did and she did actually check the ID and her excuse was that she read the 200 um 9 as a 2004 and we do actually have a an age um identification um scanner and she haven't used it unfortunately because if she did scan the ID it would went all red in front of her and cash registered. So, she was terminated the same day because she didn't follow the rules and um uh hopefully it's never going to happen again. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Further questions from the applicant. Thank you, sir. >> Um I already opened the public hearing, right? >> Yeah. >> Um did I close the public hearing? >> You did. >> Yeah. Okay. So, that was further discussion. Um any other discussion with the commission? All right. Seeing none, I'll look for a motion. A motion to approve subject to the conditions stipulated in the in the report. >> We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? I'll >> second. >> We have a motion to approve and a second. All favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All in opposed signify by saying nay. Seeing none, that motion passes 5-0. And we'll be on the December 3rd agenda for the city council. All right. All right. Next, we will move on to item number seven. Uh, October 27th, 2025 planning commission meeting minutes. Uh, approval. Uh, do we have a motion to approve or do we have any changes? >> Make a motion to approve. >> We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? >> I second. >> We have a motion to approve and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. 5-0. Next, we'll move on to item number eight, recap of November 5th and 19th, 2025 council meeting minutes, and community director Schmidt. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Uh, happy November. Here we are nearing the end of the year. Um, so November 5th council meeting. Just a couple items that I wanted to note. Um, we did, uh, have council approve our, uh, comment letter to Washington County strategic plan. I think it's important to note that our collaboration, coordination with the county and their CIP is very similar obviously to our CIP when we think about our long-term 5-year plan and those capital investments that we're planning for and making in the future. Obviously, Washington County impacts greatly uh Cottage Grove. So, we continue to uh collaborate and coordinate in that effort um in their CIP planning process. Um second item uh at that November meeting was uh the final determination on the Amoris uh backwaters EIS project that has been ongoing for quite some time. So that was the final determination um identifying a complete uh project or process. Um, but it's so important to note that that work is a guide as uh the potential applicant were to continue forward in a permitting uh process through all of the uh agencies that will require permitting for this project to continue. Uh again, that did not approve the project to continue to move forward, but certainly guide um from an environmental impact perspective. And then finally, I just wanted to note uh Greycloud Elementary did receive uh their approvals from the council on that date as well um for those additions at the elementary school if you recall. So that work uh will likely start in 2026. And then quickly the November 19th meeting, there was one item that I just wanted to recognize, real estate equities. You hadn't heard that project in quite some time. Um it is an apartment project at 100th uh and Hadley Avenue. We called it, you know, the Zivic 40 if you've been around a little while, but um that apartment project, so 164 unit affordable project had received all of its approvals through planning commission, city council, that site plan review uh for the application. Um however, we didn't approve the development agreement at the same time. It didn't coincide with those approvals. So that development agreement and then uh some uh subsidy. we're we're um working with them to offer them our LAA local affordable housing um dollars uh for their project given the affordability component. Um so council did approve both of those at that November meeting. So we're excited to see that project continue to move forward. So with that, as always, uh Mr. Council Member Justin Olsen is here and I will wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. Council member Olsson, do you have anything to add? >> Thank you. Uh just a couple things here for you. Uh not necessarily fully related to planning commission business, but this certainly has uh a lot of interest for those who may be watching at home hopefully. And that is all the various holiday events that we've got going on as we approach Thanksgiving this week and then turn the corner uh rapidly moving downhill towards Christmas. I'll start with this Thanksgiving day. We've got our annual Hail to the Bird 5K. For those who aren't aware of what that is, uh it is a fundraiser that is put on for the Friends in Need food shelf and the holiday train. Uh this event started here in Cottage Grove with a group of friends who wanted to find a way to give back and it has grown exponentially ever since. Um I remember the first year uh the mayor in a big tall top hat pardoning the turkey. Um, I don't think he'll be wearing that same top hat this year, but he's certainly going to be there at the event, which starts at Hamlet Park at 8:00 am for check-in and 9:00 a.m. for the event. Again, it is hail h a l e to the bird. Uh, that is a 5k race. If you go to active.com, you can sign up if you'd care to participate. Uh it's a great fundraising opportunity for uh those of us uh who love to support friends in need and the holiday train. And speaking of the holiday train, it will be making its appearance this year in Cottage Grove on December the 13th. That uh is a Saturday. We don't always get it on a Saturday, so it's kind of nice that we're going to have it on a Saturday. The train will arrive at 5:15 p.m. approximately. Um, this isn't Germany, so I don't know if the trains always run on time, but uh, we're we're pretty close. Uh, the event actually starts at 3:30 and it will run until about 6:30 in the evening. For people who are interested in attending, uh, there's no charge to attend. The holiday train arrives uh, right near the Youth Service Bureau on West Point Douglas Road. And uh, there'll be music, there'll be hot chocolate, there'll be cookies, all kinds of different things. Again, this is a fundraiser for the Friends in Need food shelf. So, if you'd like to bring either uh non-p perishable items you'd like to donate to Friends in Need or straight up cash, which they absolutely love, uh there'll be people there with buckets walking around where you can make your donations. I know that there'll be a number of check presentations there that evening as well from some of the other local businesses and nonprofits who are looking to donate. The holiday train uh is the largest fundraiser that Friends in Need has and Cottage Grove is the most lucrative stop in the United States for the holiday train. This year the goal uh for Cottage Grove and the surrounding community is to raise $125,000 for Friends in Need, which would be about 30% of their annual budget. So hopefully we can uh not just uh hit that number, but smash it. Uh we typically do pretty well, so uh please keep that in mind. Again, uh that's on the 13th of December near the Youth Service Bureau. You can park up by uh either the um 80th Street Crossing or you can park over at All Saints Lutheran Church if you need to. The park and ride is also a great spot to park and we will have wagon rides pulling people to and from the various parking areas. So, come and enjoy yourself with the family. Speaking of family fun, we have an event right here at city hall coming up on December the 4th. That is our annual hometown holiday event and it runs from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. We would like you to park either at the South Washington County Service Center or the Hero Center next door. Again, we will have um uh wagon rides back and forth so you don't have to trump through the snow or uh walk a very long distance to get here. Once you arrive here at city hall, there'll be all kinds of fun things for you to do. We'll have live reindeer, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Sparkles the Elf will be here. A lot of food trucks, a lot of games. Um, you'll see a number of city vehicles and personnel here. We also have a little walkway out to the side here where um you can get your picture taken and do some fun things uh with different holiday lighting, etc. So, we hope you'll come and join us. It's it's a great time. Again, 5 to 7. There's no charge. So, please come down, enjoy yourself. It's a very familyfriendly hometown holiday event and you'll get to hear the Park High choir singing Christmas carols as well. So, we'd love to see you. Two other things I want to mention like there hasn't been enough. Um, the Cottage Grove Lions has their annual Santa breakfast at the VFW this year on December the 7th. That runs from 8:00 a.m. to noon. You'll have your opportunity to meet Santa Claus, get your picture taken. Uh we also have a number of free giveaways uh that we do each year for the Lions Club of which I'm a member. Um you know, every kid that comes in gets a ticket. That ticket can get put into any number of buckets for free giveaways. And at the end of the day, we uh give away lots of fun things like bikes and, you know, things like that. So, uh lot of fun. December the 7th, 8 to noon. The price to attend is $12 for adults, $8 for kids. There'll be a lot of great food. uh a lot of family fun and as I said uh opportunity to meet Santa. So please come and visit with us at the VFW on the 7th. And if you miss us or you just miss Santa Claus, you can come to River Oaks on December 21st for the annual Santa breakfast at River Oaks. This is a really fun event. Um we have sleigh rides. We have all kinds of different things going on over there. Wonderful meal. $25 for adults, $18 for kids six to 12, and then uh kids five and under are free. So, if you'd like to come and join us there, you can make your reservations right at uh the River Oaks website, or you can call River Oaks MUN golf right here in town and uh make your reservations. Get in there early cuz it fills up fast. So, that is all the fun stuff that's coming down the pipeline. If you have any not fun stuff you'd like to ask me about, I'm here for you. Uh, please feel free. >> Any question for council members? >> I want to add something to the holiday train plug. So, we have food trucks there, too. And they um donate a substantial portion of what they make that night to the food shelf as well. So, >> outstanding. >> Invite people to come and just eat dinner down by the train. So, >> thank you for mentioning that. I appreciate it. Anyone else? >> Any other questions? >> All right. >> Then, let me take a moment to say thank you for all that you do in service to our community as members of the planning commission. As I've told you before, uh we're extremely grateful for the residents of our community who volunteer in all of our advisory commission capacities. Planning Commission tends to have a little bit of a heavier lift sometimes. And I know that sometimes the packets that you get are a little thick. Take a little time to read through there. So, um please know your dedication and uh your passion for serving the city is greatly appreciated. and I wish you and your families all a very happy Thanksgiving and a very happy holiday season. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have item 8B, which is planning response to planning commission inquiries, which we have none. And next, we'll move on to 8 C, planning commission request. Do we have any planning commission requests? Um I don't know if it's if can be if this can be considered as a request but I was wondering so one of the applications today had a warehouse conditional use permit and in the same location there's there's also a food um packaging business. So aren't there any restrictions with warehousing cannabis versus um having a food packaging in the same place? >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Bot to clarify. So, our code requires a conditional use permit because it is the warehousing of low potency uh cannabis products. Simply a warehouse use for uh restaurant uh equipment or food, right? Whatever that might be. Our code does not require a conditional use permit because of the minimal impact with with the THC and the low potency and the cannabis. Um, we want to make sure that we're uh, Commissioner Bod, I will say, treading lightly but learning as we go, right? We want to make sure that we're navigating slowly into uh, this this new world, right? Um, where the state is creating these standards that are trickling down to be enforced by the local uh, governments and so we're making sure that we have the ability to review. And it sounds like maybe uh, Council Member Olsson has some additional details to share. Real quickly, was your concern that those two uh uses might be in conflict? >> Yeah. So, I was wondering I mean have the state or someone has thought about this because one place you have cannabis uh packaging and in the same location in the same building I would say you also have food packaging right so are there any regulations or some kind of a safeguard put there so that you don't have crosscontamination >> Mr. Mr. Chair, Commissioner B, I'll clarify. It's only storage of the material, the items. It is there's no manufacturing happening um in either of those locations within the building. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Commissioner Fischer. >> Oh, I was just going to say what Emily was saying. I think that they're already packaged. I think it's a distribution versus a assembly than distribution. [clears throat] So, >> all right. Any other questions? All right. Sounds good. Then we'll move on to item number nine. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? So moved >> and a second. I second. >> We have a motion to approve and uh to adjurnn and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. We are adjourned.