Ellison says he will visit ‘to listen’
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will be in Northfield on Friday to support the rights of Viking
Terrace residents.
Ellison is a long-time advocate for residents of manufactured home parks. He said, “[manufactured housing] is a very attractive option for affordable housing if it’s kept up and maintained well.”
While in the US House, Ellison introduced legislation to protect residents from abrupt park sales and introduced a bill that would have used a federal tax incentive to encourage park owners to sell to the residents or a non-profit.
This July, after a community letter-writing campaign, Ellison’s office took enforcement action against Viking Terrace’s new owner, Lakeshore Management. They informed the company that a new lease and rules imposed on residents likely violated Minnesota laws. For example, new rules cannot be a “substantial modification” from what residents agreed to when they first bought their homes. Lakeshore’s new rules included a de facto 10:00 PM curfew, forbade children to play in yards not their own, and required all guests to be registered and limited to 10-day visits. Lakeshore has since rescinded the lease and rules, though they have not rescinded similar leases in their other Minnesota parks.
Ellison explained many parks face a disturbing national trend. As local park owners retire, they often sell to big out-of-state companies. He said, “You see more hedge funds and private equity buying up these spaces because they’re lucrative.” And, Ellison said, “You sometimes have owners who are trying to extract every single penny they can without investing.”
This is why Ellison advocates resident-owned parks run as cooperatives. There are ten such cooperatives in Minnesota, and creating one is a dream of many Viking Terrace residents.
Ellison said he will be in Northfield to meet residents and community members and hear their concerns directly.
“The main idea is to listen. You cannot advocate for people unless you understand their needs. We want to hear from local leaders. And we’re going to talk about how to improve quality of life and protect the rights of folks who live in Viking Terrace. Hopefully what we’ll be able to do is increase the level of communication, be able to respond quicker to concerns, and one of my hopes is to try to get folks that live in manufactured housing to think about whether they could possibly buy the land that they live on.”
The public event will be at Emmaus Church at 6:00 PM Friday, followed by a visit to Viking Terrace.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Attorney General Keith Ellison can be heard here.
Council considers THC product regulation
During their meeting on Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council had more conversation about how
best to regulate the newly legalized edible products containing Delta-9 THC derived from hemp.
City Administrator Ben Martig said he had hoped to have several ordinance options ready for the council by Tuesday night, but after consulting with the Northfield Alliance for Substance Abuse and Prevention, new and different scenarios were brought to his attention, and he felt the council should discuss the options further before any sort of ordinance was written.
Martig said THC infused beverages, and how best to license them, has clouded the proceedings. Martig explained that several craft breweries in the Twin Cities have begun to off THC infused drinks, and that is now something the council will have to discuss.
“So, we’re kind of thinking through the complexity of that and how that might impact things, and how we should be licensing that. Because you could then have people consuming alcohol while also consuming some of these THC products, and we’ve heard from the state alcohol control they aren’t really supposed to be combined together. It’s one of the reasons they’re prohibiting it from off sale liquor stores to be sold because it’s not something that’s supposed to be part of liquor and our municipal liquor store can only sell products that really either are liquor or are related to alcoholic beverages.”
The council is not of one mind in this matter. Councilor Jami Reister said she is very concerned about these products getting into the hands of minors. Edible gummies that look like candy, she said, will almost inevitably be ingested by very young children, and she would like to see strong regulation through the city. Meanwhile, Councilor Sean Allen was concerned about limiting the options of small businesses to sell a legal product that could be highly profitable. Mayor Rhonda Pownell’s concerns are in the uniformity of the laws from municipality to municipality.
In fact, Pownell asked for more information on putting a moratorium on the sale altogether, which is what Dundas has done, as have several other cities throughout the state. Martig responded that the state is requiring any city that does enact a moratorium to do an in-depth study on the issue, but there are few details about how to go about that, what it should entail, and how long the city would have to complete it.
No action was taken on Tuesday night. More options are expected to be presented to the council at their next meeting on September 6.
City to hold public Parks and Recreation meetings
The City of Northfield is preparing to hold a series of meetings and open houses to receive input from the
community on a planned 10-year Park and Recreation Capital Investment Plan. The Northfield parks system is extensive, but underfunded, and the plan that will be put before the public will attempt to rectify that situation.
The city has worked with consultants for more than a year to make comparisons to other cities and understand where the parks department is lacking and where it is sufficient. The plan they have created will provide strategies for funding existing deteriorated park and recreation infrastructure and address unmet park and recreation needs in the community.
Community members will be able to share their input at several in-person and virtual meetings. Virtual meetings will be held this Wednesday, and on September 26. An open house will be held on September 26 as well, at Sechler Park. Another will be at Greenvale Park Elementary School on October 6. A combination virtual meeting and open house will be held on October 12 at City Hall.
Those who are interested but unable to attend are asked to complete the online survey or reach out to City Engineer David Bennett at 507-645-3006 to share your input.
The online survey can be found on the City of Northfield website.
Cait Kelley is the KYMN News Editor. Contact her at cait@kymnradio.net.
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