San Luis Obispo County will be home to a maximum of 141 legal marijuana grows bigger than six plants next year, under a new land-use ordinance that will only allow cultivators who successfully registered with the county last year to apply for growing permits in 2018.
After many months of discussion and rule tweaks, the SLO County Board of Supervisors adopted a cannabis ordinance at a special all-day hearing on Nov. 27. The final vote was 3-2, with 3rd District Supervisor Adam Hill and 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson dissenting.
“I look at it as a starting point. This is a slow rollout,” said 1st District Supervisor and board chair John Peschong, who voted in favor of the ordinance.
Under the rules, the eligible cultivators will be able to grow on specifically zoned property at certain acreages with setback requirements. Additionally, personal and caregiver grows are banned outdoors and can’t exceed six plants total. All storefront dispensaries are banned, and cannabis manufacturing is allowed but limited to using non-volatile substances. Delivery services are allowed under the ordinance.
Successful pot growers will need to find at least a 10-acre site zoned agricultural, a 20-acre site zoned residential rural, or a 50-acre site zoned rural lands before applying for a cultivation permit.
Industry hopefuls especially criticized the 50-acre rural lands requirement. Land-use consultant Jamie Kirk told the board it could put several registered growers in the county out of business.
“I’ve looked at it, and these are small family farms, the ones we’ve talked about wanting to protect,” Kirk said. “The unintended consequence of the blanket restriction is it’s going marginalize these operators.”
The board voted to keep the limit.
Supervisors squabbled over the ordinance at length, with Hill and Gibson harshly critical of an ordinance that was largely shaped by Supervisor Peschong, 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold, and 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton.
“You’re telling all the small growers, ‘See ya,'” Hill said of the rules. “We’re killing them before they even get a chance to compete.”
Hill added that the county was “picking winners and losers” with the regulations. Compton, who said she’s received many complaints about cannabis farm smells in her district, countered Hill, saying “we do that with every land-use designation we make.”
“In every aspect, we’re picking winners and losers,” Compton said. “I have to look at what conditions the citizens that elected me to office want and don’t want.” Δ
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 10, 2017.
Hi, my name is Nawal Kassir and my husband and I are the founders of Circle of Dreams Farm, inc. Speaking as a member of one of the “small family farms” mentioned in this article, this ordinance is going to have devastating consequences. We have been cultivating Cannabis in San Luis Obispo County under Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420 since the beginning of 2014 and we have always followed the city, county, and state regulations. When Paso Robles decided to vote on allowing delivery services, we immediately applied for our business license and were approved. We maintained a discreet cultivation site on a one acre parcel in Paso Robles until January 2016 when the city voted to ban cultivation within its limits. We were forced to move our family and our farm out to the Carrizo plains area where we thought we had finally found a place to operate our business peacefully. We purchased a home nestled on 5 acres of land, and set up our cultivation site on less than one of those acres. The site is well concealed and securely fenced behind a 6+ foot screened fence with a locking gate, and well away from any property lines. We do not have neighbors on either side of us, and the one neighbor we do have behind us, we are in good standing with and they have issued no complaints regarding our farming activities. Our farm utilizes closed loop cultivation practices in which no waste is produced. Our Cannabis is all organic and produced in an ethical manner. We have a well which we source all our water from, and we have professionally installed sewage and electric. We immediately complied with the temporary ordinance in 2016 and were quickly approved to cultivate on our land. We meet all the impending State requirements regarding a cultivation license and have been patiently waiting for the state to begin accepting applications, however, the San Luis Obispo County BOS decision is creating much uncertainty for farms such as ours. This ordinance feels like a huge step backwards and is going to force us to either uproot our family once again for the second time in 2 years, a move we likely cannot afford to make, or put us out of business completely, taking away the lively hood that supports our family. I have written to every board member expressing my concerns, a task I have undertaken many times over the past several months of deliberation and I feel that my concerns are falling on deaf ears. Our farm, and many other farms operating in the unincorporated areas of the county do not pose the threats that the board is concerned about, nor have we received any complaints about our activity, or done any harm to the environment or fellow citizens. To pass a blanket ordinance such as this is a huge injustice. It is going to put many people out of work and cause a lot of suffering within the community for both business owners and the long time patients that they serve. I ask that anyone who shares my dismay over this ordinance speak our and voice your opinion in the hopes that our local government may revisit this issue and deliberate with more effort to find a win/win solution for everyone involved.
With regards to the above statement I agree Nawal. The county is being very stupid here. Again i think it is lack of knowledge on their behalf. They need to go to other towns where these family farms are thriving! If they realized the potential here and what the revenue could do for our county maybe they would not do this. I just don’t understand. Maybe they are all to old to see it. Pot is not worse then alcohol sorry but hands down as far as I am concerned. I have seen more families ruined by alcohol then pot. we need to vote these people out and get a younger generation in there! Wake up!