Cannabis dispensaries won’t open in Minneapolis until 2025. However, the city took a significant regulatory step Thursday by adopting a set of zoning rules that will apply to cannabis sellers, manufacturers and other businesses.

The regulations do not impose distance restrictions between individual cannabis dispensaries.

Council member Aurin Chowdhury proposed the amendment that eliminates a proposed 300-foot buffer zone between dispensaries. She said she wants to make sure local business owners — who have already opened low-hemp stores and want to become dispensaries — aren’t pushed out by someone who gets first a license and is in this buffer zone.

Council member Katie Cashman said she doesn’t want out-of-state companies to “gobble up existing space” at the expense of the more than 500 existing hemp retailers in the city who may want to venture into the dispensary business.

“Also worth noting for people concerned about a dispensary congregation,” Chowhdury added. “I will say that there are already buffer zones built into this ordinance, including the 300-foot K-12 buffer zone.”

Chowdhury said the amendment is consistent with regulations adopted by the city of St. Paul earlier this week.

But that didn’t sit well with at least one council member.

“I’m not sure St. Paul is the best model for us,” added council member Linea Palmisano. “I guess I’m a little more skeptical about opening up all the zoning that this does for new cannabis permits than for others.”

Palmisano said she worries that the consolidation of cannabis businesses could hurt those in other parts of the city. The council member said she preferred a more measured approach.

“We have a great responsibility here to approach this issue carefully, because we can never go back and rezone some of these places,” she said.

Palmisano also said she didn’t understand why the regulations reduced the buffer zone between dispensaries and schools from 500 to 300 feet.

Chowdhury responded that there is currently a 300-foot buffer zone between primary and secondary schools and liquor stores. She said she wants the history of cannabis criminalization to inform the zoning process, as the city ushers in a new era of recreational marijuana.

“Legalization is part of repairing this harmful legacy, especially for people incarcerated for minor drug offenses, and the way cannabis has been viewed in our country,” Chowhdury said. “Having a higher restriction on the spacing of schools and liquor stores was a way of saying one is more moral than the other, and that’s something that was discussed within of the planning commission.”

She said the city should vigorously support state laws to keep cannabis out of the hands of children.

The city’s zoning regulations also prohibit outdoor advertising of cannabis products.

“Our local government leaders have worked for years to establish an inclusive, fair and thoughtful approach to recreational cannabis in Minneapolis,” Mayor Frey said in a statement. “This order is an important part of the overall framework we are putting in place to ensure legalization works for everyone. »

MPR News reporter Cari Spencer contributed to this story.