News&Comment

From the field: My land was invaded by pot growers

I have family property between Healdsburg and Guerneville off Sweetwater Springs Road. Porter Creek runs through my lower property. The creek is a fish bearing stream as are other creeks off remote, hilly landscapes. Fish biologists have done fish counts on Porter Creek, The property by the house where I grew up on Mt. Jackson…
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From the field: Lost our peace in Valley Ford

In the Valley Ford and Freestone areas, rarely represented, we never received any grower or county notice of growers intent to farm, set backs, commercialization of a private easements and roadways. This ever morphing ordinance needs structure and enforcement and serious guidance. It needs to return to the ballot. This industry needs to be in…
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These are not Farms – They are Drug Manufactories

These are not Pot Farms These are drug manufacturing facilities. Their level of daily employee activity is entirely different from and exponentially more than vineyard operations, or other true agricultural operations Thus they need to be permitted in specially designated commercial or industrial areas. Vineyards are harvested once per year, they do set up port…
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They’re Not Listening…

First when we screamed NO they admonished us for not showing up to the town hall they held with 100 people, in a county of 550,000 and 154,000 homeowners, they had 100 people in a town hall to decide that they are going to violate all of our property rights. Not one supervisor said whoa,…
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Legal marijuana sales creating escalating damage to the environment

Marijuana sales have created an economic boom in U.S. states that have fully or partially relaxed their cannabis laws, but is the increased cultivation and sale of this crop also creating escalating environmental damage and a threat to public health? In an opinion piece published by the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers from the University…
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Sonoma County set to consider cannabis policy changes to ease dispute between growers, neighbors

Sonoma County supervisors will consider Tuesday revising the rules governing cannabis businesses, hoping to balance the competing interests of pot farmers and neighborhood activists who don’t want commercial grows near their rural homes. The Board of Supervisors also is set to discuss opening the door to recreational cannabis sales in the county’s unincorporated areas, where…
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Pot Growers impede fire response

On August 4, 2018, at approximately 1045AM, Deputies were dispatched to the Bartlett Springs Road area, in Nice. Fire… Posted by Lake County Sheriff's Office on Saturday, August 4, 2018

On Setbacks: A Proposal

 I submit my proposal to you to implement proper cannabis property setbacks in order to achieve your stated objectives to improve cannabis/neighborhood compatibility. Such setbacks changes are not included in any Phase 1 recommendations I’ve seen, and that would be a missed opportunity to make significant strides toward neighborhood compatibility — today. This map of does not demonstrate any…
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County protecting marijuana scofflaws

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Sonoma Valley Sun The owners of two proposed cannabis grows in Bennett Valley are violating environmental or planning laws while the county allows them to continue to grow their lucrative crops. California Fish and Wildlife has determined that a grower on Matanzas Creek Lane has polluted and diverted a…
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From the field: Pot and property values

EDITOR: Suppose you bought a house in Sonoma County. You worked hard to pay the mortgage. You worked hard to build up equity in your house. You worked hard to make your house a safe environment for your children. Then the Board of Supervisors voted to allow a large commercial cannabis operation to be built…
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