So this rise for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you. I have a we have a quorum. Uh we have a few members missing, but as long as we have a quorum, we we're moving on. Uh I'd entertain a motion to amend or approve the agenda. Move.
Is there a second? All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. Hearing none. All in favor? Approval of the minutes of June 18th, 2025. Uh you should have received a copy of all of that. Is there a second to approve the
minutes? Uh John is seconded. All in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. Hearing none. All in favor. Uh uh well updates from the board of adjustments. Uh Jordan, you have anything?
Yeah, we had one uh prime soils variance today. Um it was a 2 acre parcel of record that was a wooded lot and we approved that one. Do you remember the name on it or anything?
Yes, it was uh Colton Pearson is the person who's going to be buying the lot. Where's it at? Uh it is in St. Charles Township on County 37 I believe just south of 14
think there was a twoacre. It was originally three parcels. Um, it got a variance in 1994 from subdivision regulations and it's been vacant
since then. Okay. Uh, Marsha's not here, so I'm going to we won't have a county board update unless somebody here knows something that I don't. Okay. Uh, just kind of a brief update of
how the comprehensive plan is going. This would be the work group steering committee. Yeah. Yep. So, we had our first steering committee meeting a few weeks ago. Um the consultants came into town and did an introduction overview of the process and the project. Since then, we attended
the county fair. Um Wednesday to Sunday. We had about 280 comments on some boards that we had out asking people what they loved about the county and where they like to spend time. Just really trying to get exposure for the project and kind of what um what the plan is and what we're doing. Um, next we do have an
online survey that's available right now. Um, as well as paper copies and then we will be attending the township officers meeting. Believe it's August 13th would be the next um meeting date. Any questions? Any? Yeah. Uh, did you have the website for the
survey at the fair? We did. Okay. Yep. Yep. Thanks. Thank you. I'm going to move on to the petitions. Uh, the first one I have on is docket PC07-17-2501. This is to consider a petition from
William and Carol Eert, property owners, and Andrew Cretasi. Is that correct for pronunciation? Excellent. uh petitioner who seeks a conditional interim use permit for the following to allow a new residential
building site dwelling and egg and the egg resource conservation zoning district of less than 40 acres in pursuant of county Winona County zoning ordinance chapter 10.4.6
uh parentheses 326 and 5.5.4.2 two of our zoning ordinance. So, Eric, I think you got this one. You bet. Well, good evening. Um, this is a conditional use permit to allow a new
building site on less than 40 acres. And your chair had read the applicable sections uh to that ordinance. See, maybe Oh, I got to power this thing up. Okay. This is a new Hartford Township section
9 parcel number indicated and they are looking to divide 10 acres off of that quarter quarter section. Uh it's located along Store Drive and again a new Hartford Township. Uh the applicant site plan shows their
orientation in which uh they would develop the 10 acres. It would be relatively um a short distance off of the township road. U the applicants have indicated about 114 ft from the from the
road and it would be approximately 93 feet from the eastern property line. And again this is 10 acres. couple of other exhibits. This is a rendering that I did with GIS to show the approximate 10acre parcel. It's
predominantly woods as you get to the wood line with steep sloping terrain as you go to the north into that parcel. Um, and it's it's right at the end of store drive. So, the public road or the township road comes to an end basically
at this parcel. It serves a couple of other residences and some of the other exhibits will show the characteristic of the neighborhood. Uh the two surveys that we had received from Johnson and Scoffield is one with a aerial overlay showing how the 10 acres
would lay um in the terrain. Uh the one on the right is your certificate of survey uh which u essentially shows the dimensions of the 10 acres. Uh we did as all building sites look at
the prime soil consideration and with this 10 acres um what this exhibit is showing is that approximately just under two acres would be subject to subject to the prime soil and that's the general vicinity which they would be
building. Um however when we um use that equation on that 10 acres it's about 20% of the parcel. So our standard is the 40% so it meets our soil criteria. They will not need a variance or board of
adjustment application with this request. Couple of views. This is looking back to the west along store road. You can see off to the right of the township road is the reality sign which uh they the uh
owner and the applicants I believe they are um have a pro in the process of purchasing and may even be complete. Um that would be something that the applicant could could speak briefly on.
Um, also in the distance with the red barn is the original property owner, uh, the Eerts, William and Carol, and their homestead is located on that parcel. It would correspond with some of your mapping exhibits.
Uh, this is the site that they've kind of indicated to mark the uh, building site. Um the applicant has indicated that it would be uh a onelevel barn
dominium. It would be like um I guess we've seen some different variations of housing choices like the showouses and whatnot, but the barn nominium would be partially um for probably like a garage and then probably would living quarters. and they've
indicated that it'd be approximately 150 ft 100 by 50 in dimensions. This is the view panning looking north at the township road and you can see the eastern tree line is the property line
uh that would correspond with that one exhibit that you have. And this is looking somewhat to the southwest. Um what is noted in the staff report is that there's been uh two other
divisions that have occurred. One in 2021 and I believe one in 2023 which involved 20 acres with each of those sites and those also represent conditional use permits where they had gone through this process in order to
build those two dwelling sites. This is a view looking at the dead end portion of that township road. It serves a couple of sites. Um as you go to the east there's a building site and is off
veers off to the right kind of to more to the south to southeast there's another building site. [Music] The petitioners did meet with New Hartford Township on May 8th and the town board indicated that they had no
comments in regards to this request. As with all the conditional use permits, um staff recommends considering all the materials and the testimony and making the decision and a review of the findings of fact that have been done by
our county attorney's office. uh the the staff report and the findings that have been drafted by staff and this generally supports the petition as a conditional use permit and staff has also recommended the imposition of four
conditions to go along with that approval should you make that to the county board. And with that, I guess is there any questions up front that I can answer? Anybody
from the commission? Uh Jordan, um when would subdivision rules apply to this? The these parcels have all been exempt because as I mentioned, the first two were 20 acres and they had considerable road frontage. We're talking, you know,
20 and 20 that'd be probably roughly 6 to 700 ft of road frontage. And this one has over 300 feet and is over five acres too. So all three of these are I mean the history of the ones that have occurred were exempt as well as this one
because of their size. Okay. Anything else? Thanks. Turn it over to the public hearing. Uh would the petitioners like to come up and speak on your project and just state your name and your address?
Anybody's willing? Hi. Hello. My name's Andy Passki. I live your address. I live at uh 600 Copeland Avenue, Lacrosse, but north side of Lacrosse. And then go ahead and tell us. I just need it for the record. Tell you what,
I needed your address and stuff for the official record that we recorded. 600 Copeland Avenue, Lacrosse, Wisconsin, 54603. And now you can go ahead and tell me what you want to say. Just want to know a little bit about what we want to do or
you you're in charge now. Oh, so you tell us as much as you want. Well, uh me and my girlfriend, she's back there, Molly. We met the Eberts and the realtor and we just really fell in love with the land and
it's 10 acres and the rule needing, you know, with the 40 acre rule and uh we're applying for the conditional use permit because, you know, it's a nice private piece of land and we really love it and we want to build a barnaminium. It's got everything we're looking for and
that's about it. Any any questions from the commissioners? No question. We've got a good outline. You know, if you had some Well, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. All right, Tom. Or I'm sorry, but do the
EIRDS care to contribute or I know we know who you are. All right. Thank you very much. Does a decision made tonight or not today? We're going to we decide on a recommendation for it. It will go to the county board on August 12th.
They will finalize their So August 12th was when it final. Yeah. Yes or no? Correct. And that's at 900 a.m. Okay. Be here. All right. Thanks for your time. Y thank you. Okay. Do I have a second to open?
All in favor opening the public hearing say I. I oppose. Nay. Hearing. All in favor. Uh the public hearing is now open. So anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone. State your name and address
and tell us your concerns. I'm not seeing anybody. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the micros microphone, state your name and address and your concerns. Okay. For the third time, anybody wishing to speak for or against this
petition, please come to the microphone and state your name and your concerns. I'll move to close the public. Is there a second to close the public hearing? All in favor of closing public hearing say I. I oppose. Nay. Hearing none. All in
favor. So now the public hearing is done. What do you want to do, commissioners? I'd move approval with the facts and findings and the conditions that they have. Yeah. And they're on page of your book be on page 20 through 22.
And Eric has outlined these already. Is there a second to Louise motion? Second. Any discussion? If not, we'll vote on it. All in favor of uh recommending this petition say I.
I. Oppose. Nay. Hearing none. We're all in favor of recommending this petition to the county board. And your date is Tuesday, August 20 12th at 9:00 a.m. Okay. So, we'll move on to the second uh
petition. Got to catch up on my paperwork here. And this petition uh the petitioner seek a conditional use permit to allow cannabis cultivation operation and the a resource conservation district the zoning district in pursuit of Winona
County zoning ordinance chapter 10.4.6 and chapter 12.2.2 and Eric take it away. Yep. Okay. Again, uh similar to last month's meeting, we have another request
for a conditional use permit, uh 10.4.6 and also 17.22. You recalls the new chapter 17 was the cannabis uh section addendum that we approved earlier this year. And this
property is zoned agricultural resource conservation. This is again a new Hartford Township section 13. Uh it has a current address of 30530 Valley View Road. There is no dwelling
on this property at this time. There's previously or existing is two metal pole buildings. I believe the historic use um was uh raising horses on the site and it's a 18 slightly over 18 acres in
size. kind of an irregular shaped. Again, Valley View Road is a township road that serves these property. And what is unique is that it comes to an end or terminates right at the juncture of all the adjacent neighboring properties and this property as well.
Some pictures will kind of highlight that. Another site plan that they submitted in conjunction with some of the permitting kind of shows that uh there is segments of woods is just that border of the property and it's kind of a valley
setting uh kind of regular and elongated and it's got some of the adjacent property owners next to that parcel. uh it's kind of showing uh in regards to their operation request there's a 54x32
pole building and then a larger one 100x 62 um directly adjacent in line with it uh they propose I think starting out at a quarter acre or maybe um they do ask permission for a half acre or 0.5 acre
for outside grow they also do um plan with their operation to have indoor grow as well. Some of these pictures were early in um April. So you can see kind of existing excuse me conditions prior to leaf on
conditions. But those are the two structures that are on the applicant's property. And this is um looking um I believe to the to the east [Music]
again. This is looking to the south where the old the horse pasture area is. And it's um you can see it starts to go up um kind of steep as you go to the to the um uh east there. And it's also
bordered by a tree line on the west. And this is now current pictures taken fairly recent. And this is the view looking at the the site as you come in off of the driveway. And looking at back to the south at that pasture area
in which they wish to have the cultivation area. This is uh the point in which uh the driveways come off of Valley View Road. Uh the first one is looking to the east. Second picture on the right is looking
to the west. Um, this property is flanked by residential properties and I think the staff report points out what the approximate distance is from those uh that comes up. I can revisit that.
Uh, this is earlier the spring picture looking back at the north at the properties as you enter this property. Um, looking back into that area, the city of Dakota is within a half mile of the site. As you're going back to the
north, uh, this is, uh, looking at the private drive entrance from the north into the petitioner's property. It currently has, uh, kind of white picket fences that that border the property. Uh staff understands that the
petitioners did meet with the township board on July 10th and they indicated that the township is not in support of the request. And to continue with that, they cited two statements um from what I could discern with the the form. One, the
unfamiliarity with the cannabis legislation or legalization and concern regarding neighbor opposition to it. The planning commission should consider all the materials and testimony before making findings that support the decision. The staff report um as far as
the findings that are held up against this permit as far as a decision generally support the granting of this conditional use permit and should the planning commission decide to approve the petition staff has drafted five conditions for your consideration.
With that, I'll ask any questions that you have. Any questions from the commissioners? Thank you, Eric. Thanks. I apologize. I did not introduce the petitioners. It's Heather and Garrett
Johnson and Justin Johnson. So with that, uh, could I have a representative or all the petitioners come up tell us about your project and state your name and address. Perfect. I'm uh Justin Johnson and I live at
30945 Lake View Avenue in Redwing, Minnesota. Thank you. All right, so uh a little bit of history about myself. Uh, like I said, my name is Justin Johnson. I have been the president or I am the president of the company that will be using this
conditional use permit for cannabis. I have been in the Minnesota Hemp Pilot Program for the last 5 years cultivating hemp up north. I have on the other sides of this industry. I have started a retail location down on uh Third Street, the Rippled Leaf. Under my two years of
operation, I passed every inspection that the state and county uh threw at us. We were going to be or we were the conditional or not conditional, we were the control group for the gummies used in testing in Winona State to see uh what was a good gummy versus what ones
are you, you know, getting that are going to have uh either heavy metals in them or something that wouldn't be good for consumer intake. And we were the control group that was showing what good quality looked like. Um I also produced uh packaging in my time. So under ripple
D farms I made child compliant packaging that was also 100% compostable. So in all aspects of this I've had a lot of experience developing farming and producing highquality products in this industry that were also safe for consu
or safe for our communities and yeah something I can be respected and meet all testing. Uh a little bit about the project we're looking at here. Um I'm hoping to grow a half acre. that's what my license would allow us to grow. And we're hoping for that back area um far
off the road behind our pole barns. That is our prime location we're looking at right now. Uh it's out of the view of all neighbors. Um we we don't really want to make a big scene. Um when we were up north, the biggest thing for 5 years, we had no security complaints. We
didn't have we didn't need any fencing. So, we didn't have any fencing, but we never needed um to implement any because nobody ever came around because we just blend right into the background. We make very little noise and that is one of the ways that we remain the safest in our
industry. Um, a little bit more about the indoor location. The indoor location is going to be outfitted with all of the correct carbon filtration. So, you'll have very little to no odor um coming from that indoor grow. We'll meet all of course fire code, safety code, any code
that the state puts on us, we are confident we're going to be able to meet. And um gosh, I'm just racking my brain here for any other Oh, uh traffic. I remember hearing from when I went to the New Hartford Township, um one of the concerns was going to be is there going to be a lot of traffic coming down our
road? It is a small road and uh they were concerned that we'd have trucks coming in and out or a lot of people coming in and we have no intention or just any plans for having any sort of retail space. This is going to be strictly agricultural. So I'll have at most two to three people help me harvest
and that's at a very you know twice in the summer or whenever we have harvest but it's a very infrequent time. It's not every week. So we will not have many people coming down the road for purchasing. That is not allowed on our property. We are only going to be cultivating and then transporting our
product off to different uh retail locations. No traffic coming down our road or we don't no more than a two uh person household. Um gosh, any Oh, uh I would like to mention as well,
I know, um as Minnesota is trans transferred into a legal market, there's a lot of concern about cannabis use and how it's going to affect communities. And one of the things I'd like to remind everybody is cannabis is here right now. In fact, the markets in states that
overregulate and restrict small small especially family farms find that the black market surges or we have surges from out of state cannabis that is much less regulated. And having passed the rigorous testing that Minnesota has and knows how to grow organically and not
spray things on our cannabis that is going to be harming our customers. Our cannabis is we produce cannabis and products that are safe and regulated instead of having something come in that is sprayed or laced or we just don't know the origins of we are a safe
alternative to what is currently going around Minnesota and I want to be able to continue uh producing safely and quietly is our uh our goal back here. there's any questions I can answer from the board. Otherwise, I can try to keep
rambling, but I don't have too much. Let's see what the board has or commission. Oh, just uh I think I read somewhere that uh you're going to concentrate on local uh um businesses for your your product. Yeah. So, there is a building in the
cross going up right now. I know that is a current dispensary. Uh the shop I owned in Winona, the Ripple Leaf, is now the Sugar Leaf, and they are a qualified applicant as well. Um, I know, um, gosh, I can't remember the owner of Hazy Days, but right now I'm focusing mainly on
Winona. I would like to stay in the county if I can. What are you going to do to provide security around the situation? So, people find you're not that far from Winona State in St. Mary's. Right. Right. So, Minnesota has some
pretty rigorous security that we need to implement to be able to get our license. So, we'll have a final inspection that proves that around our outdoor cultivation, we'll have at least a 6ft high fence. Um, we have to have infrared and security that encompasses um every
square inch of our outdoor grow. Uh, on top of fences, we have motion sensor lights and we have fences um for on the driveway and then cameras pointed back. Uh, there is no access in the back there. uh just snowmobile trails and then but there is no road connecting the
back of our property to the front but we will have cameras focused out there as well. I would like to mention as well for security in all of the 5 years I grew up north hemp and cannabis look identical to each other. They smell identical to each other and we have um I guess in near Hibbing Minnesota if you know the population there is a little
bit more theft up there. In all my five years, I had never had a security issue. And mostly that came from being quiet and just yeah, not uh not making a big ripple. And that's what I intend to do here, too.
So, did you have the uh uh same security system in your previous growth area? That wasn't required for a license. So, this will all be on top of everything else. And we will have the state inspector come in. Yeah. I had another question that was kind of
cur curious. I know you use the uh the buds and then the the leaves and the stocks and everything else. Yes. Uh is there ever going to be a market for the for the stocks like for fiber or anything like that? That is uh it's a slightly different plant, but that would be in in the
future. I would love to uh get in more into the industrial side. That's a industrial hemp. It doesn't have any uh of the flower product that the CBD, CBG, and THC does. U you know, the bud structure on there. Uh it's just about 8 foot of fibrous uh crop. And that one is
it's incredible. I'd love to get into it, but our plant uh it doesn't produce. It produces it, but not in the same way. So, the structure isn't as good. Can't you utilize? No, we'll be using it for compost, but yeah, if I could make paper, I would though. That'd be cool.
Great. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Do I have a second to open the public meeting? I'll second that. All in favor say I to open the public meeting. I Nate. If you oppose, all in favor of opening public meeting. Uh when I have people come up, I want you to try
to limit uh your concerns to about three minutes because we'll go back over it. So at this time the I'd ask anybody that wishes to speak for or against this petition to come to the microphone,
state your name and address and again tell us your concerns and we'll try to get through everybody. So the the public meeting is open mic is open. So anybody that wishes to come up speak for or against the petition, we glad to hear
from you. Good evening, council members. Uh my name is Hunter Gross and my wife Emily and I live at 30544 Valley View Road in Dakota, Minnesota. Uh the property directly adjacent to this one in question here tonight. Um we
have lived there for the last six years and are currently raising our two-year-old son. In a few weeks, we have a newborn baby coming. Um, I want to thank you for your time this evening for allowing us to speak uh regarding our concerns with this conditional use permit to allow cannabis cultivation
operation next to our home. To start, we felt uncomfortable with the letter from the Winona County being the first point of contact mentioning the CUP and planning of the property. Additionally, felt very disappointed that there was no prior outreach from the Johnson's with an introductions of themselves, their
plans to cultivate and harvest next door. Uh their application was posted on July 9th. Uh stated that they had prior conversations with the township. However, attending the township meeting on July 10th, the New Hartford Township
Board seemed completely in the dark with no prior knowledge of what his intentions were for being there. So with that and the lack of information and timeliness of sharing, uh his plans were a factor for the township's board of do not support.
Our concerns a burden on the existing road. Half of half of Valley View Road where the city of Dakota and New Hartford Township meet, the road becomes a single lane dirt road with only a few wide enough areas to pull over to the
side to allow others to pass. With steep ditches on each side with an undisclosed number of vehicles and time of operations, this could create serious hazards for the residents who call the valley home. Property depreciation. This is a double-edged sword. The
Johnson's paid 157% over the county's tax assessed market value. The acceptable standard for the assessors is between 90 and 105% of true market value. With with this, they will dis disproportionately increase property taxes as the neighbors we must pay. And
then when the time comes when we so choose to sell, there'll be the the true market and desiraability of the properties will be diminished. Since legalization in Minnesota is new, there's no instate data showing this. However, if we look across the country,
there are numerous examples of how cannabis farms have ne negatively impacted surrounding property values. For instance, in the state of Colorado, home prices per realtor.com said homes within a half mile of cannabis business offer a lower property value than homes
with the same county that are farther out and that neighborhoods with growouses are at least the least desirable with an 8.4% price discount. In the state of Washington, in Spokane County, the county assessor's office determined that neighboring properties
of a cannabis farm was devalued by 10%. In the state of California, the superior court had a class action lawsuit against Valley Crest Farms that involved the residents within a onem radius of their farm seeking damages for the horrible
odors and that emitted from the grow operation affecting their property values, business, and overall quality of life. With the Johnson's plan for an open air unfiltered outdoor cultivation area, that one mile radius from their location will affect nearly half of the
residents of Dakota. Applications states that indoor growth facilities are not visible from the adjacent land. We can see that the existing buildings from m on Mr. Johnson's properties from our driveway and four of our daily used out
buildings. The vegetation tree line that they claim secludes them from the view of the outdoor cultivation area is all situated on my property. So when the time comes that those trees are mature for harvesting, they'll be wide open for visibility. The application also states that they are hoping for a second outdoor grow
facility. However, the cultivation area is not listed in the application. Security requirements and undesirable detention. I work for a local general contractor and for the past several months I've worked alongside with clients that are looking to spart start dispensaries here
in the Kulie region. So I'm quite familiar with the security requirements that these facilities require. Commercial grade security fencing, 247 security cameras, exterior flood lighting, card access control, vaults to keep product overnight, secured transportation. These are not signs of a
smallcale operation, nor are they typical of any other farming operation. All these me measures are mandated mandated by the state for obvious reasons. This type of business is highly prone to criminal activity. With that criminal activity, it could
cause a burden on emergency services. God forbid that there is an emergency. We are situated in the far corner of the county and currently receive minimal attention from law enforcement as Dakota is a quiet bedroom community with no police force. In closing, council members, I urge you to take all these
points into consideration when voting tonight whether or not to permit cannabis cultivation operations, as it will certainly not affect myself, my close neighbors, as well as the town of Dakota with the hazard on the road, depreciated property values, unbearable
odor, and the undesired attention that will not be harmonious with the surrounding area that we call our home. Thank you. Thank you. I let you go a little longer because you were giving us new ideas. I I didn't know it was limited to 3 minutes. I thought it was done. But you were giving me new information. When it gets repetitive, that's the idea
behind that. Three minutes. I appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come to the microphone, state your name and your address and your concerns. Come on up. Uh hello, I'm Jim Gross. um Hunter's dad
and I see you brought your parents and you're proud of your kid and um I live on 386 Valley View Road. I just purchased this property about two months ago. Uh I've been through a lot of county meetings and I understand when
Lewis said we're late to the dance. The problem is we were never invited to the dance till 10 days ago. How do you fight something that you detest when you don't weren't part of the conversation to begin with? You guys
said here the staff was out in April looking at this property. Not one neighbor has heard about it until you guys sent us a letter. I got it on July 7th. There has to be some laws that give us information that we can deal with
this. We're not organized. This is all new to us. I know the state has a gun to your head trying to get you to pass this stuff, but it's still dangerous. I'm 63 years old. I've dealt with the drug problems. I've had deals with they talk
about they're going to be safe for this environment because the black market is bad. The black market hates these guys. They hate the government because they're making a lot of money. And guess what? He doesn't think they're going to come after him. They'll come after him. And the problem is he doesn't live there. We
do. And there is no way to stop that. And there is no protection for us. When I had two drug dealers in my convenience store, the cops have their hands tied. The judges don't give a This is This stuff has been around for
years. It's not new. And you give us two minutes and he gets 20 and we just found out about it 10 days ago. And we don't we ain't lawyered up. We ain't done anything. were just people who've been paying taxes here forever and you got an out of town are coming in saying, "Hey, I'm the new
farmer. I've been it for generations. He's growing pot for five years." Thank you. Anybody else wishes wishing to speak, please come to the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns
for or against this petition. So, the mic is open. Anybody else wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone and state your name and address and your concerns.
Okay. For the third time, anybody else wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, speak, tell us your name and your address and tell us your concerns. Motion to close the meeting. So move.
Is there a second? Motion to end the public meeting say I. I. Oppose. Nay. So all in favor? No. Any discussion amongst our group? I think uh
you could probably predict that I would say that uh something that the state of Minnesota has declared legal. Um I'm always reluctant to interfere with people's right of how they use their
personal property, personal land. As long as it's legal, um I have no problem with it. Thank you, John. A couple things. I know it was brought up that not enough information in our
public hearings. Unfortunately, the county of Winona's hands are tied. The state limits us to 30 days. It's unfortunate, isn't it? Because we usually have a lot more time. And if we
don't squeeze it in in that 30 days, they automatically get it without a hearing. So, we didn't set the parameters. I just wanted to let the public know that we don't have as much liberty as we we would like. And that was a contentious discussion, but we
weren't able to change that. So, that was part of the issue tonight is not being informed. And I don't disagree with you. I think you should have a lot more time than that. This county thinks you should have more time than that, but we're we were outflanked because we're
lower than the state. Okay, back to the commissioner. Is any anything else for discussion? I appreciate the uh impassioned uh plea that uh that you provided. Uh unfortunately, my feeling is that uh
marijuana has become the new agriculture. It's it's going to be grown in the in the state. Uh best thing that can be done is make sure that uh it
meets all the all the standards, all the requirements. Um talk about odor. Um sure, I can complain anytime uh my neighbor puts pig manure on his field with the with the odor. It's it's
difficult but you're in an when you're in an agricultural area that uh it's you're going to be exposed to various various odors. Granted, I have not I do not know
uh the type of odor from just growing uh the the plant and uh but uh knowing that you're going to with a HVAC system in for the internal uh and I'm not with a
half acre of marijuana out there, I'm not sure exactly how much odor that would produce. uh in a in an area. So I can't really say that much about that. Uh security
if all the security is met uh people basically uh are going to be aware that there is if they know that that's out there that the state has mandated that they have a certain level of security. That's
and that's in our manual from 59 to71 that you all got. Yes. And you're right that is required by the state of Minnesota. Uh, I think having uh having the ability
to um purchase marijuana or cannabis products legally will probably reduce the risk of anybody going out and trying to steal plants. I plus plus there's uh there's enough
information out there how to grow their own. It's uh as for black black marketing racketeering that I doubt seriously that a major thing would come in to
take over a halfacre grow situation. Uh to them it probably is not a significant uh opponent to what they need to do. So
as it increases in Minnesota, it's going to be spread out farther and farther. Yeah. There's no way to interfere in that really. Anybody wants to know about order, I odor. There is a stinking weed that has
it that's grown wild on my ranch for years and it is a hell of a tough weed to get rid of. Stuff has an o once you smell this stuff, you know. what it is. Doesn't matter if it's a high THP or if it's
ditched. You're talking about the hemp. It's ditched. It's got It's got an odor. It's got an odor. It's got an odor all to its own. And when it's in a fire, it's got all an odor to itself, too. Yeah. But that's not I mean, they're
cultivating it. It's uh I guess the question question doesn't matter where it comes from. It stuff still stinks. It won't be processed on a daily basis. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you you drive by pastures full of it all the time and you don't
notice it. I mean, well, I had to go live the house and I didn't watch airport and I'd turn around. I figured out the only best weapon for it is an M18 Milwaukee salt. But that's here and there. But uh I feel
for these people the fact that the real estate values going on because I've seen other valuations in property of Colorado. I also know about the troubles that they've had in California about it. Other people growing back and the gangster activity text and other people
growing it. Heard about that situation. They even showed it on TV. But we have so little petition though. We've got detail the fences and the confinement. We have so little control over how our property value changes over time
depending on what our neighbors build or do. It's, you know, I mean, it's Saratoga dealing with that uh with the strong presence of Wayne BG and the Amish coming in and greatly overpaying
for uh property there that's been driving up. Having been trained in the equalization, no one property dictates the value. This is going to be an average. In fact, they throw the high one out and the low, but the it's well taken
that when anybody buys something for more that's going to bring attention to that. So certainly it won't go down. I mean, you can say that where it is, but we all live in that world whether you're there or Saratoga by Rochester or
anywhere. So, and that was that was my point. It's just uh they may you may feel they overpaid for the land, but that's what they were willing to pay just like somebody else if they wanted to pass the property and they were willing to pay uh over
see taxes that falls into the same thing. Uh there is we did get on the findings of fact, you know, the road concerns the EMT and that type of thing.
Um Jordan, do you have anything as far as that goes or in general? Anything in general issue? No, I really don't. Um I just see it as a land use issue like everything else we talk about. And
um there have been people on this board that don't think that solar panels work necessarily. and uh we still voted in favor of of someone using their land in the way that they see best fit. So um
that's the way I'm leaning on this one. And again, just so everybody in the room knows, okay, we're a commission or a hearing from the public. We heard from the petitioners. The final say on this comes through the county commissioners.
Our vote is only a recommendation or a non-recommendation. Okay. Uh, wherever this goes, uh, it goes through another level. Okay. So, it isn't done tonight yet, and that is on August 12th. Try to conform
with all the rules and regulations. So any other comments before I ask for can I uh ask the petitioner since he's uh grown this before on that what the actual uh usage on the road
Yes you can ask that uh you know I I think a lot of people would think like uh semi you know they want to stay away from dump trucks they want to stay away from semiis they want to stay away from big farm equipment uh with your experience
What's the type of uh um road usage once you're up in operation? So, we are not allowed to transport ourselves. The transporter I'm looking at right now has a pickup truck and a trailer. Um our flower gets uh packed
into food safe 27gallon totes and then is put into that. Um like you said on a half acre we cannot we can produce about 42 totes at our maximum capacity and that can fit well within you know that trailer just pulled behind a regular
pickup truck. So basically they'd come twice a year to pick up your twice a year or uh if I'm able to I'd speed up harvests uh to once every two months would be if we have our indoor operation running. And you're not going to be uh running any retail, so there
won't be any additional traffic. No, no different. No additional traffic. I'd like to ask, well, odor came up. Can you address that? I think that's fair. Yes. Uh odor is fair. Uh cannabis is inherently smelly. I would like to point
out though, it really only picks up during the last weeks of growth. So, if we have a full summer for our outdoor harvest, um we'll have all the way out through the summer until about uh when flowering starts, and that can be August to September, depending on the cultivar
I grow. Um and that's when it gets smelly, and then we harvest in October, and the smell goes away. So, it's really 2 months of noticeable odor if you're in the vicinity. um if the wind is blowing
the other way. But I guess that's Yeah, it smells but only for two months. But can you give me a distance? Is it two miles of 50 yards? Um on a wind prevailing on the wind and then when you live there, you start to get used to it. We
have neighbors that are closer or we have up on our my old farm in um northern Minnesota, we had neighbors closer. We never had complaints. We talked to them. It really depends on where the wind is blowing. So, if you have something coming off a field and going directly at their house, you know,
we had barbecues out there. You get a whiff of it, but it wasn't aggressive. If you're in the greenhouse, you'll be able to smell it. Well, if you're down at the end of our driveway and the wind is going the other way, I wouldn't think you would be a problem. Of course, this is um it's pretty subjective to the
variables going on in the environment, but yeah. Yep. Any other questions? Okay, commissioners, where do we go? We close public hearing. Now we're either recommend or not to recommend.
Make a motion to recommend with the conditions and findings effect. That's that's fair enough. And do I have a second? You made that motion, right? Yes, Stephen. Second. So, we have a motion. Any other discussion before we vote it? All in favor of
recommending the petition to go forward to the county board say I. I. Anybody abstain or nay? Abstain. So, I have four uh for it. So, it's going to go to the
county board on August 12th at 9:00 a.m. be in this room and it tell your uh county commissioners your concern because it's always been in their hands really. Uh
so four to one, one nay and four votes. So that's the majority. Any other uh concerns before I ask for a motion to adjourn Steve M or did heain?
He obtained yain. Uh motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I. To not adjurnn say nay. Didn't think I'd hear anybody. All in favor of a journey.