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Rural neighborhoods win a stay and environmental review of proposed cannabis expansion

May 18th 2021 Board of Supervisors Meeting The long and tortured road of our local ordinances governing land use policy and marijuana. After five years of unending conflicts between long time rural residents and hopeful marijuana speculators, our Supervisors finally hit the wall of reality. They must conduct an EIR per State law and CEQA…
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Board of Supervisors Meeting May 18th

The proposed changes to the cannabis permitting process will be some of the most significant land use changes in Sonoma County in the last 40 years. Tuesday, May 18th is our best and last chance to influence the Board of Supervisors before they vote on the draft cannabis ordinance.  Below are directions on how to…
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SOSN Law Firm files letter to BOS against Sonoma County Cannabis Proposal’s flawed SMND in followup to previous letter

The San Francisco law firm Shute Mihaly and Weinberger filed another letter on May 17 on behalf of Save Our Sonoma Neighborhoods. It opposes in detail the County’s proposal to vastly expand commercial cannabis cultivation based on flawed, inadequate review of environmental impacts that is not conformant with California environmental law (CEQA). The comments make two…
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Cannabis fight heats up

Neighbors gearing up for a protracted battle over proposed changes to cannabis cultivation By TYLER SILVYARGUS-COURIER EDITOR Just south of the historic Washoe House bar northwest of Petaluma, the first hints of neighborhood agitations against the area’s nascent cannabis industry appear on the asphalt of Pepper Road. In barely discernible white spray painted letters, someone has…
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Wine Country Fights Back in Weed Wars

© PANNA | Cannabis cultivation has ballooned in California and winemakers worry about its impact.Grapegrowers and wine producers are pushing back against the cannabis industry’s push into prime California wine country.By Kathleen Willcox | Posted Wednesday, 05-May-2021 California winemakers are scrambling for survival as the biggest cannabis farms on earth make their way into wine country, bringing…
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Lack of planning?

Dear Editor: Sonoma County wants to be a mecca for outdoor cannabis cultivation, boasting that people prefer Sonoma County weed because of soil and climate. Yet they bring in external soil, discard spent soil, and shield plants from our natural climate in hoop houses or greenhouses. The proposed new ordinance will attract big players from…
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Strange bedfellows behind Sonoma County’s cannabis push

The North Bay Leadership Council endorsed an extreme cannabis ordinance that invites massive outdoor cultivation in Sonoma County. Friedman’s Home Improvement, Comcast, Redwood Credit Union, Wells Fargo Bank, Kaiser Permanente, St. Joseph Health, and Sutter Health are on its letterhead.  The proposal eliminates health, safety, and nuisance protections for anyone subjected to noxious terpene pollution—the…
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Continued Planning Commission Meeting scheduled for April 15, 2021

Note the unusual time – 6 pm. The red-lined Chapters 38 and 26 documents released on the 8th. From: Sonoma County, CA <casonoma@public.govdelivery.com>Subject: Sonoma County Cannabis Updates This email is to inform you that the meeting materials for the Continued Planning Commission Meeting scheduled for April 15, 2021 at 6:00 PM are now available.To view the meeting materials, visit…
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On Gore & Hopkins watch: the county’s cannabis regulations have been a fiasco (Wine and Water Watch)

Hopkins is on a roll: Sebastopol Inn purchase (state felt it over priced, Oakland housed 100 for Hopkins 31 same $), Measures in special election failed, power grab as board president failed, pushing biomass industry (dirtier than coal), cannabis ad hoc co-chair with Gore FIASCO. Hopkins’ comments EDITOR: I found Supervisor Lynda Hopkins’ comments in…
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Sonoma County cannabis growers and rural residents still at sharp odds over cultivation rules – Press Democrat article with comments/corrections to editor

Nearly 8 million Californians voted to make cannabis cultivation, sales and consumption legal in 2016, and the following year more than 360 farmers sought permission to farm the intoxicating plant in Sonoma County. Since then, only 184 permits have been granted in a county that at that time was home to about 3,000 growers. Under…
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