This transcript is from a Hastings Planning Commission meeting. The primary speakers are **Melanie Peters** (Chair of the Planning Commission) and **John Hinzman** (Community Development Director), along with various commissioners identified within the dialogue. [0:00] Melanie Peters: One [0:18] Melanie Peters: Moment. All right, second try. This is the Hastings Planning Commission for uh, November 13th, 2023, um, 7:00 p.m. Normal meeting. Call the meeting to order. And first up is the approval of the minutes for October 23rd, 2023, regular meeting. Commissioners, any updates? No? Okay, if none, we'll consider those to be approved. Uh, third item is public hearing: City of Hastings Comprehensive Plan Amendment 2023-24, change to Future Land Use designation for Medium Density Residential to Low Density Residential, South Oaks of Hastings Fourth Edition. Staff report by John Hinzman. [1:04] John Hinzman: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Planning Commissioners. This property and this project may look familiar to you all here and uh, we have taken action on this—what's that? Oh, it's not coming over. Let's try this, see if that's any better here. Yeah, how about this? Is that like a buzzy feedback? Yeah, I'm getting that. Okay, one second here. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to kill Zoom here because it's causing a problem. Okay, so we're done on that. Okay, now hopefully that'll be a bit better. How about now? That's still from this? Yeah, I can hear that tiny thing over here. I don't know what that is. Sorry, the room is—yeah, I'll have to look into that one. [1:51] John Hinzman: But uh, the property we're looking at—jeez, that is annoying, isn't it? Okay, maybe here, turn this down. I—okay, I'm turning down the internal volume in here so it's not tinny, which it still is tinny. Microphones... I'm just... yeah, but I don't have anything more to try on on this one. All right, well, I'll make this quick then. We've got a Comprehensive Plan Amendment here, folks, on the property that we just approved at South Oaks of Hastings Fourth Edition. Officially, we're changing the land use map—the Future Land Use map—from Medium Density to Low Density Residential. You may ask, well, why didn't we do this when we had the project before a couple weeks ago? And that's a fair question. It was something that I inadvertently missed at that time and something that needs to be done now. So this does not change any aspect of the development that we've already approved. What it does is change that land use which, for future development, has a range of under eight units per acre, and to this development is 5.7, which would be consistent with it. So that is the extent of what we're doing. Here's the map itself of what we're changing. We're changing what's designated here in the white; that is orange to yellow, essentially. So that is the action we have before us tonight. And this is a public hearing. You can open it up at this time, or I can stand for any questions. [3:35] Melanie Peters: Okay, John, thanks. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Is there anyone here that wishes to speak on the amendment? No? Anyone on Zoom? Nope. Okay, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. There wasn't before either. All right, I'll close the public hearing. Open it up to Commissioners. Any questions? Comments? [4:13] Commissioner Tyken: Administrative, it is. It uh, changes the map, would be the only effect. [4:22] John Hinzman: Correct. [4:25] Commissioner Tyken: Mr. Chair, I make the motion to approve. [4:38] Commissioner (Unidentified): Second. [4:40] Melanie Peters: Motion by Commissioner Tyken, second by Commissioner Moes. All in favor, say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Motion carries. Next item is the public hearing for the amendment to the City Code Chapter 155.07J, THC beverage sales. John? [4:58] John Hinzman: A couple of items with cannabis and hemp. We adopted some performance standards within the zoning code for cannabis sale and hemp sale with establishments with an on- or off-sale liquor license. Under the current regulations, you cannot sell THC-infused beverages or cannabis products within a liquor store on- or off-sale. So that would allow that today. Within that designation, there's two ways that it could happen. One is if that on- or off-sale liquor license establishment is zoned C3 or C4, which is most of the commercial districts within the city—anything within downtown, Vermillion Street, Highway 55, down by 316—they could sell any intoxicated cannabis products, so it would not limit it just to THC beverages but the whole slew of intoxicated cannabis products within a liquor establishment. [6:08] John Hinzman: If your property is not zoned C3 or C4, then it would be limited to THC-infused beverages only. Now in this situation, I'm not aware of anything off the top of my head that would qualify for that; we put this in there for future reference in case something were to come up on that one. So that is what we have going forward for a change. We did have our Public Safety Committee of City Council look at this recently, reviewed the proposed changes, and were supportive of the enaction of that. So what we're looking at tonight is a zoning portion of these cannabis and hemp ordinances. There's also some other ordinances within licensing that the City Council would look at in coordination with this. So I can—this is a public hearing, so you can open it up at this time or I can stand for any questions. [6:54] Melanie Peters: Okay, thanks John. All right, go ahead and open up the public hearing. Anyone here wish to speak? No. All right, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing and we'll open up to Commissioners. [7:06] Commissioner Tyken: I'm confused. Why are we separating out the C3 and C4 for this? What's kind of the history of that? [7:14] John Hinzman: Yeah, the C3 and C4 are the main commercial districts that we have. So they have more, a larger variety of commercial operations within them. When you get into C1 and C2 districts, their types of uses are much more limited. So the thought was you could allow the full slew of cannabis related products within these districts here, but when you get into a C1 or C2 where you have much more limited amounts of uses, we thought that we limited just to THC beverages. So that was the rationale for it. [8:05] Commissioner Tyken: How many liquor stores are not in the C3/C4? [8:08] John Hinzman: I don't know if there's any, frankly, at this point. I think if we got a situation where we did have a liquor store operate within there in the future, that this would have this requirement within it. I don't think it has any practical effect right now because I believe all the liquor stores and bars are either C3 or C4 presently. [8:24] Commissioner Tyken: This is just—oh, it is on-sale and off-sale? [8:27] John Hinzman: On and off, yes. [8:28] Commissioner Tyken: I guess I'm just struggling with why we distinguish between THC and cannabis in a liquor store. No other restrictions around liquor stores? I was just curious. [8:51] John Hinzman: Yeah, I mean, looking into—I don't think... [9:21] John Hinzman: I guess I get—we don't have any C3 or C—not in the C3 or C4 right now, but if we did... [9:39] Commissioner Tyken: If it was a C—not a C3 or C4—they could sell any liquor, cannabis, but not THC, right? [9:45] John Hinzman: If it's not C3 or C4, then they would be limited to just the THC beverages, correct. I think Commissioner Tyken is referring to C1 and C2. Yeah, if it's a C1 or C2, why would they be limited to only the THC? The rationale for that is there's limited uses within those districts to begin with, so there was a limitation placed upon the sale of THC products to just beverages. It's a fair question, but I think that was the rationale for it. [10:37] Commissioner Tyken: Okay, that's all the questions I have. Thanks. [10:40] Melanie Peters: You're welcome. All right, Commissioners—excuse me—any other questions? Is this kind of in relation to all the conversations that City Council has been having when they change the laws about THC and just trying to bring it online with state law? And just trying to get a handle on it—not regulating it, but managing it, I guess, would be the most appropriate term? [11:05] John Hinzman: Yeah, I mean, we adopted the original THC ordinances here and we were a little bit ahead of what was happening at the State Capitol at that point. And we did it a little bit different than perhaps some cities where we had a zoning ordinance portion of it as well as licensing. Most cities would just focus on the licensing end of it. So that's why this portion related to zoning districts comes through the zoning code and through Planning Commission tonight. The discussions that the Council have had in general have been, you know, there's a prohibition right now against liquor stores and on-sale liquor establishments being able to provide THC products. It appears that the members of the Council wanted to see that changed, and so that's why we're looking at this tonight. The method of how we get there—whether we do C3 and C4 differently than others—you know, it's a fair question. [11:57] Melanie Peters: Okay, thanks. Commissioners, other discussion? Commissioner McGrath? [11:58] Missy McGrath: I'm sort of stuck on the same question, and I think it's—I guess I personally would like to have a little bit more explanation before moving forward, because it seems like it's just a happenstance of what commercial district you're in or commercial zone you're in. So I'm a little bit confused about that. [12:15] Melanie Peters: Go ahead. [12:17] Commissioner Tyken: Thanks, Mr. Chair. So refresh me again on what we did for the zoning for cannabis products. What districts they're allowed in? They have to go through a permit—not a permit, but a... yeah, for use or something? [12:35] John Hinzman: Commissioner, I believe it's a Special Use Permit within certain districts, I think the C3 and C4. I don't have a full ordinance in front of me here. [13:05] Commissioner Tyken: So you're thinking that we only allow them in C3 or C4, but this would open up liquor stores in C1 and C2 to sell THC? [13:17] John Hinzman: And I may be wandering here a little bit without full knowledge of what I'm talking about—I'll preface that by saying that right now—but I'm just wondering why we're treating this class differently. Fair question. I believe that your cannabis sales that you have right now are limited to Special Use Permits within the C3 and C4 district, period. So if you have a C1 or C2, you can't have cannabis at all. So what this ordinance is doing here, I believe, is it's allowing everything in liquor establishments in C3 and C4 and opening the door to saying, "Hey, if you're a liquor store outside of C3 and C4—C1 or C2—you can sell THC beverages, but that's it." I think that's where we came down on C3 and 4, because under the original cannabis code, those are the only areas by Special Use Permit that you can have a cannabis sale. I believe I'm right on that, but I wouldn't take that to the bank. [14:20] Commissioner Tyken: I'm starting to remember that now that we—I am too. But when we also did that ordinance, we said no liquor stores will be able to sell cannabis, right? And why did we do that? And now we're coming back and saying that we're going to change that. [14:40] John Hinzman: Yeah, fair question. That was the original proposal. There were some questions, I remember, when Council reviewed that original ordinance, questioning why we had a prohibition on liquor store sales of that. But the rationale was, "Hey, let's adopt the ordinance as it is right now; we'll discuss putting that in as a change potentially later." And there's other things that we don't allow liquor stores to do, like sell food, right? Sell what? Sell food? I'm not certain of that. Okay, I thought that we talked about something that... remember, but... [15:23] Commissioner Tyken: Okay, thank you Mr. Chair. That's all I got right now. [15:26] Melanie Peters: Commissioner Hubbard. [15:28] Commissioner Hubbard: Is there a way, John, that we could table this to get more clarification on the reasonings between the C3 and 4 versus not? And also revisit what we had talked about when we did the whole original—what can and can't be sold? 'Cause I remember that too, where we talked about the liquor stores couldn't sell anything else. I just want to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row and that we're all trying to remember the best we can before we move on and approve something. I'd like to hear more rationale between why the Public Safety Committee said that this zone can, this zone can... okay, and just make sure that we're completely in line, if that makes sense to everybody else. [16:15] John Hinzman: Yeah, absolutely. I've got other items scheduled for the 27th, so I can add this to it. [16:21] Melanie Peters: Would it help to have a map of the C1, C2, C3, C4s? So that we can see that and look to see why they omitted C1 and C2 where they're located. I do have the general one up here; it just says "commercial" and it's all in red from the website here, but it doesn't break it down 1, 2, 3, and 4, just shows red. So if you follow it, it's logical why it's that way, but I'd like to see specifically where C1 and C2 live versus C3 and C4. And it's probably going to explain exactly what we're asking because I'm sure that they omitted those maybe because they were too close to neighborhoods. [17:10] Commissioner Tyken: That's why I was just going to ask—neighborhoods or schools, something. There's some trigger in there that made them think, "Okay, maybe not C1 and C2," but I can't see that on the map here because it doesn't break it down. [17:15] John Hinzman: Sure, no, absolutely. If the Commission would like to table this tonight, we could certainly bring that back in two weeks with further explanation. [17:23] Commissioner Hubbard: Okay, then Mr. Chair, I'll make the motion—the official motion—to table the amending of the City Code Chapter 155.07J THC beverage sales until we have more clarification. [17:41] Melanie Peters: Right, Commissioner Hubbard on the motion. Second? [17:48] Commissioner Tyken: Second. [17:50] Melanie Peters: Second by Commissioner Tyken. Any new or further discussion? No? Okay, all in favor, say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Okay, that motion carries. [17:58] John Hinzman: Okay, we'll bring that forward back on November 27th. And as we're talking about the November 27th meeting—two weeks—that we'll have that coming back, we'll also have a public hearing for another ordinance amendment pertaining to the Mississippi River Critical Corridor area. We had an open house earlier tonight; we had about 20 people or so in attendance. More of a question and answer type of session. And so I was able to take down some notes, and Justin and I will be working on that, and we'll have the public hearing and the ordinance before you for the 27th along with the tabling of the cannabis ordinance. That's all the action that I have before you tonight that I know of coming forward on the 27th. Council met last week on the 6th. They did approve the Special Use Permit for the former Redwing Dental for BMMK, and then the site plan and Special Use Permit for the new auto garage on Lightbourn Court. So both those were approved and, in fact, the Lightbourn Court sale—we've already closed on that one with HEDRA earlier this week. And so they're finishing up their building plans and we'll see what happens with the season, if they get started with something or not. [19:07] John Hinzman: So that one moved forward. We talked earlier tonight with the Confluence, that we had a recognition there for HEDRA and Council there, and for the other night for the opening of that facility, so that was great to see. And one of the things we are looking for right now are Planning Commissioners. We have one vacant seat that we've had for most of the year here, and anyone who may be interested in joining the Planning Commission, please look at the website or give me a call on that one. We'd love to be able to fill that seat here. And that's all I have. [19:48] Melanie Peters: Okay, thanks John. Commissioners, any other business topics? No? No? Okay. Otherwise, I'll take a motion to adjourn. [20:00] Commissioner Tyken: So moved. [20:01] Commissioner Hubbard: Second. [20:03] Melanie Peters: All in favor say aye. (Group: Aye).