When Josh and Tess Ferman opened Flipside, a Delta-9 and CBD product store in East Harriet late last year, they weren't too worried about the future of cannabis sales. They intended to turn their shop into a cannabis dispensary, but their primary concern was getting to know the neighborhood.
City and state officials encouraged Flipside to do the same. “Get established, build good community relationships and let people get to know you,” Josh Fellman explained on Flipside Wednesday afternoon. “This was a preliminary step to letting our customers know what we do.'' The Fellmans live in northeast Minneapolis.
Flipside is currently in a race against time as newly announced zoning regulations place the store just outside the CM2 business district, where cannabis dispensaries can operate. Cannabis dispensary zoning regulations follow the city's liquor store regulations, which were established in the 1950s.
36, and despite being in Bryant's bustling business district, the city has no such zoning. The closest CM2 zone is 40th and Lindale, which has about the same amount of businesses and commercial square footage as 36th and Bryant, Fellman noted.
The CM2 zone should technically be 5 acres. The business hub at 36th and Bryant is located on 3.8 acres. The area is not the full 5 acres because there are several homes between Bryant and Lindale streets.
Flipside is asking the city to include certain commercial nodes outside of CM2 zoning in the proposed zoning regulations. Fellman said it's important to add some nearby business nodes because of the lack of stores.
“There's limited space for cannabis dispensaries,” Ferman said. “It will now go to the highest bidder.”
The City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the city's cannabis regulations on Monday at 4:30 p.m. Flipside has a petition on its website asking the city to change the proposed zoning code.
Proposed cannabis dispensary zoning map with 500-foot buffer around Minneapolis Public Schools
The state told the Fellmans that zoning regulations would be done at the city level, but the city did not have draft regulations when Flipside opened. Ferman also said the city supports the opening of new hemp stores without any warning about possible future zoning regulations.
“When we announce that we’re going to take over a space and renovate it, they’re very supportive of it,” Fellman said. “They're not saying, 'Well, wait a minute, you should wait.'
