Township considers cannabis regulations

As the state’s plans to license legal cannabis dispensaries continue to be delayed, Thomson Township officials are taking steps toward deciding how the township will handle cannabis business regulations. During Thursday’s regular meeting, the board formed a committee to consider cannabis regulations. Committee members include township supervisor (and former Cloquet assistant police chief) Terry Hill, supervisor Logan Saline and township attorney David Pritchett. The supervisors will bring public safety and zoning/planning experience, respectively, to the table.

“We’re sort of subject to what Carlton County does and the county just came out with their policies. So we need to respond to that,” Pritchett told the board.

He said the township needs to amend its ordinances, in particular the zoning ordinance, to specify the kinds of use allowed in which districts: e.g., growing cannabis in the agricultural district, or sales in the commercial district. It also needs to address licensing.

The delays at the state level have created a kind of “de facto moratorium” on cannabis businesses, Pritchett said, proposing the township use the time to research and consider what it will do locally. Until the state can begin licensing businesses, the sale of recreational cannabis is not yet legal.

“Really the job of this group is going to be studying the whole topic, with the idea that we’re going to impose some kind of controls. We don’t know what those are going to be,” Pritchett said, noting that his law firm partner Bill Helwig is working with the city of Cloquet on its own regulations.

In other matters Thursday, board members approved a state bonding request for $3.5 million to create a utility crossing across the Interstate 35 bridge from near the Esko school to the south side of the interstate. As presented by Nathan Feist of Bollig Engineering, the utility crossing would bring water from the Lake Superior waterline across the bridge and also include sewer infrastructure as well as long-term water planning. Thomson Township doesn’t have any public drinking water system: every home and business uses wells. He estimated the total cost at roughly $7 million.

When Feist mentioned the waterline as an alternative source of drinking water, township chairman Tony Compo stressed that the Lake Superior waterline belongs to the city of Cloquet, which has an arrangement with the township to allow water for fire protection only, not drinking water. The water isn’t treated, and homes that were once hooked up to the waterline have all had connections removed and wells dug.

The main purpose of the waterline is to service the Sappi mill in Cloquet.

“We use that Cloquet waterline with express limited permission from the city of Cloquet,” Pritchett said. “It’s their line. We got permission, for example, to run it into our business park, so we could have fire hydrants there. We would need the city of Cloquet to allow this kind of expansion.”

Feist said they anticipated having to work with other entities, including the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, should the project get into the state bonding bill.