Mendocino County’s Cannabis Cultivation Program, overseen by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Planning and Building, has caused mounting frustration by all parties involved: county staff, permit seekers and the Board of Supervisors, which on Tuesday expressed intent to amend its cultivation ordinance.
The Department of Agriculture, in charge of approving applications, is reportedly being crushed under the weight of the new program. The total number of applications received by the department was 580 on Monday, while only one permit has been issued, as Supervisor Carre Brown said she was told three weeks ago.
“That’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not the way we want the program to be operated,” she said. “I am very disappointed in the process.” Complaints have poured in from the start of the process, some from confusion about what exactly is required from applicants. Jane Futcher, attempting to get a permit for her small growing operation, was not informed why her application was denied after seemingly following the process to the letter, she told the board on Tuesday.
Another small grower, Mare Murphy, said she did not receive clear instruction from the county, also arguing that requiring small grow sites to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act is unnecessary. “I’ve been told probably 10 different things by the Planning and Building department,” she said. “I don’t understand why, on private property, when you’re not selling any cannabis there, and you’ve got a tiny little 25- or 50-plant garden, why you would have to have ADA facilities; it doesn’t make any sense to me…..” Criticism of the county’s ordinance for potentially shutting the cottage (smallest-scale) industry out of the legal market has been the loudest cry from local established growers, again brought up on Tuesday.
Also in the mix was a group of homeowners on Boonville Road enraged by a new commercial grow moving into the neighborhood, applying for a 10,000 square-foot canopy area. The neighborhood was not designed to be anything other than residential, they said, and a commercial operation that large will disrupt their lives with increased traffic and disturbances. “When easements were to be given, they were intended to be thoroughfares to private residential,” said Boonville Road resident Steve Miller. “Small roads, single-lane bridge, and certainly there was no intent, no thought at that time to have fully loaded semi-trucks and all kinds of commercial activity and a very high increase in traffic flow through the area.”
The Boonville Road operation signals what many residents have been worried about from the beginning: large, outside operations moving in and taking over Mendocino County. Brown said the county is definitely being taken advantage of, as she has seen huge greenhouses going up and trees being removed all over. “We do have bandits…that are taking advantage of all of us,” she said. Supervisor John McCowen indicated the county is being left behind, as growers cannot sit on their hands while there are plants to harvest. Hearing that the county’s permit situation is not getting any smoother with time, the supervisors seemed in favor of creating a stand-alone unit for the cannabis program and hiring a “cannabis manager.”
They also all seemed ready to revisit the ordinance and make some alterations, Supervisor Georgeanne Croskey pointed out more applications have been denied than have been accepted, indicating a real problem, she said. “We do have some things that need change,” Croskey said. “And, you know, I think we’re probably at the time that it’s time to open up our ordinance back up and go ahead and start making some amendments.” One thing they may consider is to grandfather in small sheds for drying, which would speed up the process for several applicants, according to the Department of Agriculture. The department has been directed to come back to the board with a response to the complaints in the supervisors’ next meeting on July 18.
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