It makes sense for you. It makes sense for us. EDITOR: The cannabis industry disclosed important facts during the county’s public outreach to develop a vision for an updated cannabis ordinance. Their notion that cultivation will become a marquee industry that will generate wealth and create new jobs is problematic. As reported in The Press…
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EDITOR: The County has ineffective provisions for proliferation and over concentration of cannabis and has opened it to all agricultural land without localized and specific environmental review is of a scale that defies wholesale mitigation. This is especially so in a county with such varied topography and conditions and the many residential enclaves adjacent to…
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EDITOR: Drought, drought, drought. Sonoma County is experiencing its worst drought in decades. Our reservoirs are at an all-time low, and even with conservation measures, our officials estimate only enough water for another year or so. It’s safe to assume homes relying on ground water (wells) are facing the same dire consequences. Sonoma County is…
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Sonoma County and growers often claim there are no problems at permitted grows—that illegal activity only happens at black market grows. Not true. A grower near Knights Valley, Nicolas Bettencourt, has filed the attached law suit against Sonoma County. He asks the court to strike down Sec. 26-88-254(f)(21) of the cannabis ordinance that includes the…
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Dear environmentalists: Cannabis is not a good story in terms of carbon footprint, resources… Federal laws bar cannabis from crossing state lines, driving up the cost — and the emissions — of an industry using indoor grow operations Marijuana has never been more popular in the U.S. — and its carbon emissions have never posed…
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Promoters of marijuana cultivation such as Cannacraft and SPARC assert this should become a “marquee industry” in Sonoma County that will generate wealth and create new jobs, yet somehow not exacerbate the housing shortages. This argument merits close examination. Land and labor are expensive in Sonoma County compared to many locations where marijuana can be…
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May 19, 2021 The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors should be applauded for doing the right thing this week and ordering a full Environmental Impact Report before taking the next steps in considering cannabis cultivation in Sonoma County. The Supervisors overcame heavy lobbying and pressure from the corporate cannabis industry that wanted to open the…
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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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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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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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