This letter is to address the Board of Supervisors hearing regarding permitting industrial hemp to be grown in San Luis Obispo County.
The actions taken by the board majority is a violation of property rights. The excerpt below came from Chapter 5.16—Agricultural Lands, Operations, and the Right to Farm of the SLO County municipal code:
“If your property is near an agricultural operation in the unincorporated area of the county, which satisfies the above requirements, you may at times be subject to one or more inconveniences and/or discomfort arising from that operation. Such inconveniences may include (depending upon the type of agricultural operation protected), but are not necessarily limted to, the following: noise, odors, fumes, dust, legal pesticie use, fertilizers, smoke, insects, farm personnel and truck traffic, visual impacts, nighttime lighting, operation of machinery and the storage, warehousing and processing of agricultural products, or other inconveniences or discomforts associated with the protected agricultural operations. For additional information pertaining to this disclosure and the Right to Farm Ordinace, or concerns with an agricultural operation, please contact the San Luis Obispo County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.”
The Board of Supervisors majority broke the law by not adhering to the municipal code.
The Board of Supervisors majority broke the law to use an “urgency ordinance” illegally. The urgency ordinance is only available for use if there is an imminent threat to public health and safety.
The rules that the Board of Supervisors are putting on the permitting of industrial hemp are against the law and are a taking of property rights for famers that have less than 400 acres of growable land or do not meet the giant setbacks from the other ag-zoned property.
Other counties have established rules that do not violate the property rights of small farms. Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson is the only member of the board who understands the needs of small farms and stands to support them.
Lastly, the possibility of legal action against the county is real. The Board of Supervisors needs to change county rules to benefit all farmers and not just wineries.
Conner Luckey
San Luis Obispo County
This article appears in May 21-31, 2020.
So, does that mean everyone with a patch of farming ground can run a cattle feedlot? How about a high density pig farming operation? It is absurd to equate an industrial hemp operation with non offensive farming uses. The Board of Supervisors seem to have done the correct thing here. I speak as a small farmer.
The clear INTENT of the county code is to alert property buyers that, if they choose to locate in an agricultural area, they are likely to be subject to the existing inconveniences associated with agriculture, such as, say, when someone builds their home next to a dairy farm. It is protect the use which was there first. It is not to require existing residents to tolerate NEW uses which introduce a NEW and objectionable effect.
I agree with the points made in the letter. Unfortunately for these other people commenting negative remarks, the law is the law and the “first come first serve” rule doesn’t exist for land use compatibility. This is a clearly biased situation and discrimination toward those who grow hemp is very apparent; there is no plausible deniability on that point. The laws that got passed were unlawful themselves and I think the other people commenting would agree that this is still a free country, so trying to enforce limitations on a specific crop without any scientific or economic data to support those decisions is a dangerous slippery slope for the ag community where the government will be able to tell you what LEGAL crops you can and can’t grow.
Land use rights cut both ways, people…
You want agriculture, you accept agriculture in ALL of its forms, even those you don’t particularly like. You don’t want agriculture, then don’t allow any of it. But the anti-cannabis bigotry is very well illuminated by the hypocrisy of fake-conservative interests and those pretending to care about rights.
But don’t move to an agricultural area and b**** about other farmers because you don’t like their particular crop and don’t whine about rights while standing on a pulpit of bigotry.