Next week, several of the laws passed by the Minnesota Legislature will go into effect, including the Adult Use Cannabis Act. Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott is reminding Northfielders that, despite the intent of the law, there is still quite a bit of regulation around marijuana, and not every aspect of the law will be in effect yet.
Possession and use of marijuana will be legal in Minnesota next week, he said, but a person may not have more than 2 ounces of flower in their possession at any one time while in public. Smoking marijuana will be prohibited wherever smoking tobacco products is prohibited, so the Minnesota Clean Air Act will be enforced for marijuana as well. Eight grams of concentrate, for vaping cartridges, will be legal, as will 800 milligrams of edible products.
Growing marijuana will become legal next week, but there are parameters there as well. Growers may have as many as 8 plants at one time, but no more than 4 of them are allowed to be mature, flowering plants. They must also be kept in a secure area, and away from the public line of sight. The amount of marijuana any private grower may have has been limited to two pounds.
All possession and use of marijuana is restricted to those 21 years of age and older.
Elliott said there are other practical restrictions as well. The newly created Office of Cannabis Management has yet to name a director, much less develop the infrastructure necessary to license the sale of cannabis. Therefore, there will be no legal sale of marijuana in the State of Minnesota, except on certain Native American reservations. Without the ability to legally purchase the product, possession will become paradoxical. While other states, like Colorado and Illinois, do have dispensaries up and running, the transportation of marijuana from those states to Minnesota is illegal in both neighboring states, and under federal law, which still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic.
The Chief said the impracticalities are going to be problematic for some people.
“I don’t want to be too critical of the legislature, but I feel like they kind of put the cart before the horse on this. There’s no legal way to sell it right now, but people can use it. Well, how are they going to use if they can’t buy it and it takes a while to grow? There’s just some awkwardness in the sequence there, I would say, that’s going to create some challenges and confusion for folks.”
Chief Elliott’s larger concern remains the issue of driving under the influence of THC. It is illegal to operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana, but there is still no good way for officers to field test the amount of THC in a person’s system. Even if they could properly test, no legal limit has been set against which to measure. He expressed some frustration with the situation, saying many of the DWI’s that are issued today are multi-drug violations, and this will only confuse the situation.
The Adult Use Cannabis Act will go into effect on Tuesday, August 1st.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield Chief of Police mark Elliott can be heard here
Downtown redevelopment driven by need for growth, increased tax base
As the new plans for redeveloping Downtown Northfield come into focus, the public reaction is mixed. Some are enthusiastic to see modern designs and creativity brought to Downtown Northfield, an area that has remained largely the same for forty years, while others have expressed concern that the construction of a boutique hotel, a more modern style building on the former site of the Archer house, and a massive parking/retail/housing development on the Northwest corner of 5th & Washington Street will diminish Northfield’s small town feel.
Still others are simply wondering why this is happening in the first place. There is a fair amount of surprise about the impending projects, particularly when the timelines call for construction to begin within 8-9 months. And while there are many different answers to that question in the realms of city planning philosophy, practicality, and opportunity, the overarching answer does seem to be in the city’s economic situation.
Judging from the audit of the 2022 budget, the Northfield city finances seem to be in fine shape by most metrics, however, there are concerns. The city remains in the throes of a housing crisis, which can have a crushing effect on economic growth. The growth of the commercial industrial sector has been nearly non-existent for several years, which has led to a higher tax levy on homeowners. In an effort to reduce double digit property tax increases, which the city has seen three of the last four years, efforts must be made to grow the tax base in other sections of Northfield’s economy.
During the City Council’s work session last week, when much of the new project was introduced, Jon Commers, an urban planning economic consultant who has worked with developer Michael Landers and his group, gave a brief presentation on how a city can choose to direct the valuation of land through development, and increase the tax base. The first example he used is the 340,000 square feet of surface parking in downtown Northfield that is set to be developed. By building four stories of parking, retail and housing on the Washington Street parking lot, he said, the estimated market value of the property could be increased by 1000%, which conceivably could translate to as much as $1.2 million in new tax money coming to the city. Removing the parking North of 5th & Water Street, he said, and converting it to a greenspace, could have a dramatic effect on the property values in the area, and could have an overall impact of $4 – $5 million.
City administrator Ben Martig said the developments will greatly benefit the community.
“Based on the analysis that they’ve looked at, the return on investment on the increases in values that that type of a project would do increases $4 to $5 million. So, the return on that investment, we don’t have the [investment] cost yet but it will be manageable, we’ll be making that up through new tax base growth. We see that because there’s quite a bit of new tax value on that new parking structure, as well.”
Other questions remain about the projects, from financing, to the future of the Post Office Building on Bridge Square, but it is clear that the Northfield City Council, as well as the city staff see the dramatic changes, and many that will follow, as a necessary component to the city’s long term economic health.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
