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Osseo resident on property taxes to fund proposed dispensary: ‘It’s disgusting’
The Osseo City Council held a town hall with public discussion Thursday night on a proposed dispensary, and comments got heated over a proposed tax abatement to help fund it.
OSSEO, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Osseo City Council held a public town hall meeting Thursday night to allow the public to weigh in on a proposed cannabis dispensary in the community.
The town hall comes after a property tax abatement has been proposed that would help fund the dispensary. Residents in the city are pushing back, and public comment got heated Thursday night as they took the microphone.
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Osseo residents sound off about proposed cannabis dispensary at town hall
The Osseo City Council held a town hall with public discussion Thursday night on a proposed dispensary, and comments got heated over a proposed tax abatement to help fund it.
‘You’re going to tax us out of our homes’
What they're saying:
One resident sounded off for a little more than three minutes, and got a round of applause during her rant.
"I moved to Osseo in 2011, my property taxes were $2,200 a year. Now, with our assessment on our taxes because of an alley you decided to make concrete versus asphalt, we are now sitting at $6,300 a year on our property taxes. You’re going to tax us out of our homes with this dispensary when it fails. I don’t care what the building looks like, I really don’t," the woman said. "What I care about is what is sitting in the middle of our town. Are you going to enforce a noise ordinance? Are there going to be constant police sitting there? It’s in the middle of our town with children riding their bikes, riding their scooters, but then people are going to come to town, buy their weed, sit in the parking lot and smoke their weed with our children running around town. I don’t agree with that. I don’t care what you do on your own personal time, but I do care what you do in my city. I’ve lived here since 2011, and I’ve never been more disappointed than how I am now. It’s disgusting."
Proposed Osseo dispensary
The backstory:
The proposed dispensary has been in the works since 2024, and city officials hope to add a brewery to it. Some city leaders see it as an idea to lower property taxes. The Osseo City Council is looking at a tax abatement bond valued at around $4 million on a 20-year term.
The city says it plans to use revenue from cannabis sales to pay the bond’s debt.
Another resident said during public comment Thursday night, "We're missing the whole point here. We don't want to be on the hook for $4 million, to something that's going to fail. Just because you say it's not going to fail, that doesn't mean anything."
If the dispensary is approved, it would be built in the former Osseo Press and News office, which is owned by the city. The building is currently under remodel, and would also house Heavy Rotation Brewing, which is currently in Brooklyn Park.
The City of Osseo is partnering with Voyageur Cannabis Services, which will manage daily retail operations of the dispensary.
What's next:
After pushback at a June 22 meeting, the Osseo City Council opted to revisit the proposed bond at a future meeting.