Contact and Delegation Form & Accela Account Registration Process

As the licensing process began, OCM has worked to build a database of partnerships with local units of government across the state to support coordination in the regulation, enforcement, and compliance. All local units of government should have 1) submitted a contact and delegation form to OCM, providing contact information for their town/city/county and informing OCM of applicable jurisdiction and authority related to land use, zoning, and retail registration processes for cannabis businesses and 2) created an Accela account. If a town/city/county has not yet completed this process, each local unit of government should: 

Updating a contact for a local unit of government

If a local unit of government has already submitted a Contact and Delegation Form and needs to make a change to the contact, the local unit of government should submit a new form with the updated information. If there is a new contact for approving or denying the certification of a proposed site location in Accela, the local unit of government should also create a new Accela account using the email for the new point of contact, for both the user ID and the contact email.  

Purpose of the Contact and Delegation Form and an Accela account

Minnesota’s cannabis law (Minnesota Statutes, section 342.22) includes the process for local retail registration, which is distinct from the licensure process administered by OCM. Each business conducting retail sales of cannabis and/or lower-potency hemp edible products is required to hold a business license and a local retail registration. This process is determined by each local unit of government. The law allows cities and townships to provide consent to the county to administer the local retail registration process. By completing the Local Unit of Government Cannabis Licensing and Delegation Form linked above, cities and townships are notifying OCM whether they are retaining their local retail registration authority or providing consent to the county. The contact provided is also used by the regulatory division of OCM for compliance and enforcement. Please note that local retail registration authority, as allowed in Minnesota Statutes, section 342.22, is distinct from zoning authority. A township or a city may still retain zoning authority and need to complete the zoning compliance verification check in the licensing process if they are the appropriate entity to verify zoning and land use compliance for a proposed business.

In order to complete the zoning and fire/building code compliance verification check when a preliminarily approved applicant submits a site, OCM needs to be able to communicate with local units of government with relevant zoning authority and request certification on an application. This will occur in the licensing software system, Accela. By registering for an Accela account, the local unit of government is preparing for the required zoning compliance verification check. Townships may opt out of creating an Accela account only if they have provided consent to the county to administer their zoning authority and have informed OCM via the Local Unit of Government Cannabis Licensing and Delegation Form. Please review Minnesota Statutes, sections 342.13 and 342.14 for more information regarding state law’s requirements for the zoning compliance certification process.  

If a local unit of government with zoning authority does not create an Accela account, the verification of zoning compliance cannot be completed and the licensing process may continue without approval of the local unit of government. 

Registering for Accela for Zoning Compliance Certification

Use the guide on Local Governments: Registering for Accela for Zoning Compliance Certification for more details on this process. 

Who needs to create an Accela account  

All city and county governments should create an Accela account in preparation of requests for certification of compliance for cannabis businesses. Townships with relevant zoning authority should create an Accela account in preparation of requests for certification of compliance for cannabis businesses. If a township has listed in the Contact and Delegation form that they have delegated zoning authority to the county, then that township does not need to create an Accela account. 

Each unit of local government with relevant zoning authority to verify a proposed business meets land use needs to identify one person to create an account for their locality’s jurisdiction — the local Accela account manager. This identified person should match the point of contact submitted in the Contact and Delegation form. Due to software limitations in Accela, only one email can be associated with an individual local unit of government’s account. If a local unit of government would like to change the email associated with their Accela account, they should submit a new Contact and Delegation form with the updated email listed as the primary point of contact and then create a new Accela account under that email address.