Pubdate: Tue, 13 Oct 2015
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Will Houston

SUPERVISORS QUESTION NEW DRAFT OF MARIJUANA ORDINANCE

Humboldt County has released the first draft of an ordinance seeking 
to regulate commercial cultivation of medical marijuana, and it's 
already raising some eyebrows among Humboldt County officials.

"It looks quite a bit different from what we saw going into staff," 
Humboldt County 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell said. "We 
have gotten feedback already."

Rather than focusing solely on large scale cultivation, the ordinance 
sets permitting regulations on both indoor and outdoor grows as well 
as other businesses like nurseries. It also seeks to comply with 
recently passed state regulations on the medical marijuana industry.

The new ordinance has several differences compared to the ordinance 
that was created by the nonprofit group California Cannabis Voice 
Humboldt over the last year, which eventually was turned over to the 
board last month to be used as a template for county staff.

Humboldt County Fifth District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg - who serves 
on the board's medical marijuana ad hoc committee with Fennell - said 
he found the recently released draft "disappointing" as he felt staff 
did not retain certain parts of the CCVH draft that he said would 
bring more growers into compliance.

"I just started going through it and looking at the sizes and the 
permits you would need," he said, cutting off. "I kind of hit the brakes."

The issue for Sundberg and Estelle comes down to the proposed 
permitting requirements.

The new ordinance requires new and existing grows with a cultivation 
area greater than 2,000 square-feet to obtain a conditional use 
permit - the county's most stringent permitting tier that requires a 
review before the county planning commission before it can be 
approved. Under the CCVH draft, only grows above 5,000 square-feet 
would have had to obtain a conditional use permit.

Sundberg said the change could risk the planning commission being 
inundated with conditional use permit applications as well as growers 
being less willing to seek compliance with county law.

"I don't see how it could physically could happen," he said.

Fennell said other concerns have been expressed, such as the 
ordinance's allowance of larger indoor grows, land use allowances, 
and conflicts with existing county ordinances on medical marijuana. 
She said she also shares Sundberg's concerns.

"If we put such restrictive regulations on cultivation, such as 
conditional use permits on smaller sizes, are we then making it too 
difficult for people to comply and, therefore, are we going to make 
the regulations so onerous that they won't do it?," she said. "Then 
we're back at a black market." Advertisement

County Senior Planner Steve Lazar - who helped draft the current 
ordinance along with the three other medical marijuana related 
ordinances that preceded it - said the county's permitting 
requirements mirror regulations in both state law and the North Coast 
Regional Quality Control Board's recently approved water discharge 
requirements for medical marijuana grows.

Unlike the CCVH ordinance, which at one point was being considered to 
be placed on a ballot as a voter initiative, Lazar said the county's 
ordinance has to show that the proposed rules won't cause significant 
environmental impacts as is required under California Environmental 
Quality Act.

With the regional water board having already established a regulatory 
threshold for grows over 2,000 square-feet, Lazar said that grow size 
was shown to be defensible under CEQA.

"We did that to try to make it more aligned with the regulations that 
could provide consistency across multiple regulatory platforms," he 
said. "There are lot of different moving parts and there are 
variables that can be changed."

CCVH Outreach Coordinator Andy Powell stated the organization has no 
comment on the county's draft ordinance at this time.

The ordinance seeks to integrate several state regulations into 
county code. Referenced throughout the ordinance is the Medical 
Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act - a three-bill package signed 
into law on Friday that will create a statewide regulatory system and 
accompanying agency to oversee all aspects of the medical marijuana industry.

However, the new laws give local jurisdictions a tight deadline of 
March 1, 2016 to adopt their own regulations on the industry; 
otherwise, the state's regulations would take effect for that area 
until local regulations are adopted.

With the release of this current draft, the ordinance is scheduled to 
be heard by the county planning commission on Nov. 5 and before the 
board for consideration by January, according to Fennell.

"It was important to get this out there so we could follow and be 
compliant with state regulations," she said.

However, there are still several aspects of the state legislation 
that the ordinance does not address. For one, the ordinance does not 
create a local business licensing structure which industry officials 
will require by 2018 in order to receive a state license. The 
previous CCVH ordinance did have a licensing structure proposed to be 
overseen by the county Agricultural Commissioner's Office.

Lazar said that the ordinance is written in a way that will allow 
these aspects to be inserted later on.

The board is set to discuss the draft ordinance at their Oct. 13 meeting.

As CCVH finalized its draft of its land use ordinance, it met strong 
opposition from local environmental organizations for allowing for 
new cultivation on lands zoned as Timber Production Zones (TPZ) as 
well as easier permitting requirements for grows up to 10,000 square 
feet. The county's draft now prohibits new cultivation on TPZ lands, 
requires compliance for grows on TPZ that existed as of Sept. 1, 
2015, and compliance with all existing state laws such as recent 
regional water regulations.

There are several major additions that give the county greater 
control over water resources, including one section that allows the 
county to reduce the size of a grow's permitted cultivation area in 
poor environmental conditions - such as a drought or low-flow 
watershed conditions - if the grow uses diverted water as an irrigation source.

The ordinance also goes a step further from the North Coast Regional 
Water Quality Control Board's regulation by requiring all cultivators 
who divert water for irrigation to cease diversions between March 1 
and Oct. 31 and to establish on-site storage or water deliveries to 
retain enough water for their grow size. The regional water board 
only requires certain grows to cease water diversions between May 15 
to Oct. 31.

With the industry already in place, Lazar said that the goal of the 
regulations are to head off impacts that would otherwise go unchecked 
without them.

"I think there needs to be more dynamic parts to this to achieve the 
objectives of allowing for cultivation without impacting the 
environment," Lazar said.

Before the ordinance can be adopted, it must undergo a review by the 
Humboldt County planning commission, which will make a list of 
recommended changes and actions for the board's consideration. Based 
on the current draft ordinance, Fennell said that the board will 
consider sending alternatives to the planning commission for it to 
consider during its review.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom