A technicality in Mendocino County’s cannabis ordinance has left growers and county officials confused for years, but at their meeting last week the Board of Supervisors voted to keep the ordinance unchanged.
The vote allows cultivators with two different licenses to grow up to 20,000 square feet of commercial cannabis on a single parcel.
The confusion stems from the fact that a county ordinance restricts growers to 10,000 square feet of commercial cultivation per parcel, provided they hold a cannabis cultivation business license, or CCBL.
But growers are also allowed to hold two types of CCBLs and can trade one license for another if they submit a completed application and pay the required fees. The result has been that cultivators with a nursery license, for example, believed they would be allowed to trade the nursery license for a cultivation license and end up with two 10,000-square-foot growing areas, or 20,000 square feet.
The April 8 vote will allow that interpretation of the ordinance to go forward.
A potential detriment to residential areas
For District 1 Supervisor Madeline Cline, the decision to allow more commercial cannabis could negatively impact residential communities. She explained that she would rather see the ordinance honor the original interpretation, which limited cultivation to 10,000 square feet of commercial cannabis on a single parcel.
“The conflicts that exist at this point lead me to go back to what the original intent was,” Cline said during the meeting. “I hope the board can consider what is happening to some of the neighborhoods and homes, not just about the (cannabis) industry and the economic impact.”
But District 5 Supervisor Ted Williams noted that limiting commercial cannabis to 10,000 square feet per 10-acre parcel could be detrimental to the local cannabis industry and isn’t a fair decision.
“I have businesspeople in my district who are watching carefully,” Williams added.
He said cannabis businesses throughout the community have already invested resources in expansion and have interpreted the ordinance as allowing them to increase commercial cannabis operations.
“Can the county, years after the fact, decide to pull the rug out from under businesses that have invested money and planned for this?” Williams asked.
This interpretation of the ordinance has sparked dissent among environmental groups and nearby residents and increased concerns that expanded cannabis cultivation could strain natural resources and bring unwanted foot traffic and other issues to residential neighborhoods.
But what about the environment?
During public comment, environmentalists and some cannabis growers offered differing opinions on the board’s actions and how the ordinance should be interpreted.
“There is another body that isn’t being consulted, and that is the flora and fauna of this county,” said Kate Marianchild, Ukiah resident and environmental writer. “There’s a huge impact on wildlife to doubling the size of a cannabis grow.”
Marianchild explained that wild food webs rely on insects, songbirds and butterflies to survive and those creatures, in turn, depend on native plants to thrive, so expanding cannabis farms could be harmful to these organisms.
“To thrive, insects need locally native plants, but commercial monoculture usually requires the destruction of native plants,” she added. “Every single native plant we have is precious, so to do anything that could double the destruction is a blow to our native ecosystems.”
“Every single native plant we have is precious, so to do anything that could double the destruction is a blow to our native ecosystems.” Kate Marianchild, Ukiah resident and environmental writer
Steve Amato, president of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, said prohibiting cannabis cultivators from expanding their farms could hurt Mendocino County’s tax revenue, business stability and overall economic health.
“We are in a climate where we are losing cultivators, operations, businesses and tax revenue by the day,” he exclaimed. “I ask you to explore if this is worth it to keep going back and forth.”
After hours of discussion and public comment, the board voted 3-2 in favor of allowing growers to apply for commercial cannabis permits for up to 20,000 square feet on a plot of land. Supervisors Mulheren, Norvell, and Williams voted in favor, while Supervisors Cline and Haschak dissented.