Upcoming town hall – Please attend and make your voice heard
| Announcement March 4, 2021 Contact: info@sosneighborhoods.com Upcoming town hall – Please attend and make your voice heard |
| Our county has released a new draft cannabis ordinance which the public needs to weigh in on. We are not concerned about individual cultivation, personal use, access to products or city-based canna-tourism. This new ordinance will allow up to 65,000 acres of outdoor cultivation and hoop houses with no input from neighbors or local cultivators who may be pushed out, as this likely will attract big players out-of-county and out-of-state. We are asking you to take action because of the serious impacts such big cannabis cultivation may have on our open space lands, water resources, rural character and quality of life. The proposed revisions will totally subjugate the rights and interests of neighbors and harm the beauty and character of our county. No EIR was done as promised. The tentative date for Board of Supervisors to vote on it is April 13. Highlights: • Allow multi-acre outdoor grows with their toxic environmental odors and 12 ft tall rows of hoop houses only 100 ft from your property line • Allow our scenic vistas to be inundated with these plastic hoop houses (see photo in this link and the stench will be throughout the area, as in Santa Barbara, where wineries are complaining its driving away customers. • Make cannabis a regular agricultural crop, like tomatoes with 24/7 guards, basically removing all restrictions and options for impacted neighbors to seek any relief or complain • Removal of health and safety clause which stipulates protections for neighbor property rights • Allow an industrial process with flammable chemicals (currently restricted to industrial areas) to extract THC, next door to residences • Eliminate neighbor notification and input from the cannabis permit process All supervisors were very clear in saying that neighborhood compatibility was their top priority in 2018 – that setbacks would be increased (we are asking for 1000 ft) and neighborhoods would be able to file for exclusion zones. But these promises have been completely thrown to the wind. The revised draft ordinance instead is taken almost verbatim from a list of cannabis lobby demands. It is a complete turnaround on what the Supervisors promised rural neighborhoods. There are many situations where grows have destroyed a neighbor’s home value or ability to be in their yard from July-Oct. The county wants cannabis to be declared a traditional agriculture crop despite the need for 24/7 workers and security- this would severely restrict ability of neighbors to file odor and other nuisance complaints and remove restrictions on where it can be produced. The county spent a year consulting at multiple meetings with the cannabis industry in drafting this one-sided ordinance, yet refused to meet with neighborhood groups until the 1 month review window, which is now. (David Rabbitt and staff did meet with Bloomfield neighbors – thank you – but not about the ordinance.) Please register to attend one of these meetings and make your opinions known. https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Cannabis/Calendar/Sonoma-County-Cannabis-Permitting-Policy-Updates-March-8-2021/ Webinar dates: March 8, 2021 from 2:00 – 3:30 PM Zoom Webinar: Register for Webinar March 8, 2021 from 5:00 to 6:30 PM March 12, 2021 from 9:00 to 10:30 AM March 12, 2021 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM Format This listening session will provide the public an overview of staff’s recommended changes to cannabis operator permitting within areas of the unincorporated County outside of the coastal zone, and will collect observations, concerns, and questions as part of the 30 day public comment period which will be summarized for the consideration of the Sonoma County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Participation Q&A Feature: If you have something to say or ask, type it out in the Zoom Q&A feature. If you like a comment or question someone else wrote, vote on it to give it more visibility. Our facilitator will be sharing comments and questions live. Email: We will be collecting comments and questions before, during, and after the listening session. Send us a message at Cannabis@sonoma-county.org. To learn more, visit the Cannabis Program – Cannabis Calendar of Events page https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Cannabis/Calendar/ Or the full calendar: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Cannabis/Full-Calendar/ For more information, visit Sonoma County Cannabis Program site: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Cannabis-Program/ References: See what Supervisors were promising neighborhoods 2018. What happened? https://www.sosneighborhoods.com/video-bos-words-speak-of-neighborhood-compatibility-so-what-happened-after-that/ See what Napa County is saying about cannabis cultivation in their famous wine tourism area: https://www.sosneighborhoods.com/napa-county-doubles-down-on-cannabis-the-answer-is-no/ See what happened to Santa Barbara County, is this how you want Sonoma County to look?: https://www.sosneighborhoods.com/another-wine-region-went-all-in-for-cannabis-the-mess-that-ensued-will-blow-your-mind/ Read how some of your neighbors have been impacted by legalized pot production in their neighborhoods. (Note there are many more who are too terrified to speak): https://www.sosneighborhoods.com/?s=from+the+field SOSN is a coalition of neighborhood residents and neighborhood groups advocating common sense cultivation of commercial marijuana in Sonoma County. Learn more at www.sosneighborhoods.com and Facebook.com/SaveOurSonomaNeighborhoods |
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