Planning Commission amends zoning text to allow for micro distilleries downtown – Southernminn.com

Now a year into the renovation, the men behind 10,000 Drops micro distillery who are looking to open the business in the Peterson Arts building inched closer to opening their business in downtown Faribault.

According to co-founder Jake Hvistendahl, 10,000 Drops plans to open its doors sometime in October so the public can sample their rums, whiskeys, brandies and gins in downtown Faribault.

On Monday night, the Planning Commission sat down to tackle one issue with Hvistendahls plan, namely, the lack of permitted use for micro distilleries in Faribaults Central Business District.

In 2013, the city of Faribault amended the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to allow for microbreweries, which was requested by F-Town Brewing Co., the business adjacent to the future home of 10,000 Drops. The buildings are both owned by Hvistendahls father, David, who spoke to the Planning Commission on Monday.

In 2015, the city added options for liquor licensing for micro distilleries, but did not change the UDO.

Now, with 10,000 Drops opening on the horizon, David Hvistendahl requested that the city add micro distilleries to the zoning text amendment and make micro distilling a permitted use in Faribault.

While Hvistendahl is seeking a permitted use, city staff urged the commissioners to issue a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) instead.

Among the factors the city needs to account for are noise control, odor control, outdoor storage controls, deliveries, loading and a cocktail room size minimum of 10 percent of the gross floor area.

The latter factor was discussed at length on Monday evening and was the cause of some delay with the project. The building contained too much floor space in the current structure to meet fire code requirements. While learning this news was a setback, a silver lining soon emerged.

We are creating some mezzanines so we are up to fire code, said Jake Hvistendahl in an interview before Mondays meeting. The cocktail room is getting a little bigger and we will add a second story mezzanine, which will be opened up for private events. It will cost us some money and create some delays, but it might give us a more usable space and bring something even cooler to Faribault.

Besides the tasting room requirement, the other aspect of the citys proposed zoning text that was questioned by Hvistendahl and his associates was the volume the distillery is allowed to produce annually.

As it is written, the proposed amendment has a cap of only 500 gallons of storage allowed each year, which David Hvistendahl argued was simply not enough.

Basically, they will hit 500 proof gallons at the end of their first month, he said. Thats why storage limits have to be opened up. They want to cask a substantial part of their production. Their business plan allows them to cask a substantial amount of whiskey over three years.

Hvistendahl explained that the team hopes to cask about 50 percent of their production, while bottling, serving and distributing the other 50 percent.

Hvistendahl asked the Planning Commission to instead consider adopting the state statute level of production. Currently, the state of Minnesota allows for 40,000 gallons of annual production, which differs starkly from the proposed restriction of only allowing 500 gallons of storage.

The commission seemed to agree that the state statute makes sense in this scenario.

Lets change the 500 gallons to the state statute, said Commissioner Steve White. I think thats perfectly aligned with this building. If we are going to have this thing be successful, we have to make it so they can make enough product to be successful.

As the meeting concluded, the commissioners amended the zoning text to allow micro distilleries, but chose to continue discussion of awarding 10,000 Drops a CUP until its site plan evolves further.

In the conversation, ideas of an event center in the building and of a possible parking structure were discussed as possible additions to the plan.

For now, Jake Hvistendahl and his co-founders, Rob Kruchoski and Pat Jacobs, are hard at work preparing the building for their distillery to open in October.

Jake Hvistendahl noted that the process working with the city has been easy and finds city hall supportive of the plan. This, he said, allows his team to work toward their vision of what 10,000 Drops could be.

We want to give Faribault a fun place to hang out that feels different than the other cocktail lounges around the Twin Cities, he said. Hopefully its a good place for people to go to sip on some whiskey and rum. Im hoping we can get it all wrapped up in early fall and get it open.

Gunnar Olson covers city government, public safety and business for the Faribault Daily News. Reach him at (507) 333-3128, at golson@faribault.com, or follow him on Twitter @fdnGunnar.

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Planning Commission amends zoning text to allow for micro distilleries downtown - Southernminn.com