Minnesota cannabis licensing: What to know, submit, and get right

Shelter helps Minnesota cannabis businesses prepare critical licensing application materials

Our state’s cannabis industry is moving forward, full-steam ahead. The Minnesota cannabis licensing process has been underway for some time, and with the industry’s rules adopted in April 2025, applicants are receiving preliminary approval on a rolling basis from the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). So what comes next?

Preliminarily approved applicants have 18 months to complete five key tasks

If you’ve made it through the early stages of the Minnesota cannabis licensing process and have been preliminarily approved by OCM, you move into the final portion of the application where you have 18 months to complete five key tasks:

• Secure a compliant site and obtain zoning certification
• Prepare & submit your Final Plans of Record
• Pass a pre-licensure site inspection
• Pay your license fee
• Register with your local government (for licenses with a retail endorsement)

The requirements for the Final Plans of Record alone can feel incredibly daunting. Not to mention the fact that once approved by OCM, this information is final and binding. If your plans are not accepted, you risk delaying or losing your spot in the licensing line.

The Final Plans of Record arguably require the most coordination and accuracy of the entire Minnesota cannabis licensing process. You have to get it right the first time. We can help.

Preparing your Final Plans of Record

What are Final Plans of Record?

An applicant’s Final Plans of Record are a detailed set of documents that prove you’re inspection-ready. These documents must accurately reflect your business’s team structure, standard operating procedures (SOPs), major systems, vendors, and the design of your facility.

The Final Plans of Record consist of 6 required components:

1. Site, Security & Operations Plan
2. Inventory Control SOP
3. Quality Assurance SOP
4. Accounting & Tax Compliance SOP
5. Ownership & Control Update (if applicable)
6. Vehicle Disclosure (if applicable)

We’re going to focus on the Site, Security & Operations Plan section where you’ll need to provide OCM with critical information about the design of your facility in the form of both drawn diagrams and written narratives. Let’s discuss why you might want a team of design professionals to help you prepare these documents.

How do I get my Site, Security & Operations Plan right?

One seemingly simple, yet extremely critical element of the Site, Security & Operations Plan is creating diagrams that are drawn accurately and to scale. Since your submitted plans must represent the final built version of your facility, you need to make sure everything you’ve laid out on paper will actually work as anticipated once constructed. This is what we as designers do every day. We’re trained to not only design buildings, but to coordinate and integrate multiple systems (i.e. electricity, ventilation, plumbing) which will be especially critical for cannabis facilities. Having a trained team of professionals develop your Site, Security & Operations Plan is an incredibly efficient way to verify that your space will meet your business needs.

We at Shelter can produce deliverables for your Site, Security & Operations Plan as a product of our time-tested design process. Not only will we help you fulfill OCM’s requirements, we will also give you critical information needed for the eventual construction of your facility, including:

• Evaluating existing building(s) and site(s) for feasibility
• Reviewing, evaluating, and summarizing all applicable zoning and building codes
• Coordinating and refining building program layout (what happens where) and space sizes
• Creating accurate to-scale diagrams of buildings with all OCM required information
• Coordinating all subcontractors needed for building-related requirements (security, HVAC, electrical, equipment, etc.)
• Writing detailed narratives of OCM-required building information
• Creating Construction Documents for the build
• Assisting with permit applications
• Overseeing construction
• And more…

Shelter & Blunt Strategies are here to help

The Minnesota cannabis licensing process becomes especially complex at the Final Plans of Record stage, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. We can create an accurate, compliant, and customized design for your facility and produce your Site, Security & Operations Plan that together will give you the blueprint to be successful both during and after licensing.

We’ve also partnered with Blunt Strategies, Minnesota’s first and only cannabis consultancy. Together, we offer deep expertise and support for our cannabis clients.

Need help designing your facility and Site, Security & Operations Plan? Get in touch.

Learn more at our cannabis webinars

Don’t miss our two upcoming free webinars with Blunt Strategies!

• Friday, June 13th | Final Plans of Record – Assembling Your Team
• Friday, June 20th | Final Plans of Record – Designing Your Site, Security & Operations Plan

Registration opening soon.