San Francisco Law Firm Pushes Back on Sonoma County Cannabis Proposal

Sonoma County’s proposed cannabis ordinance and its supplemental mitigated negative declaration are worse than anticipated, and fails to adequately analyze its environmental consequences as required by the California Environmental Quality Act.

The proposal allows permits for up to 65,733 acres of outdoor cannabis to be issued in a backroom ministerial process where there is no public knowledge or participation. 

The proposal removes health, safety, and nuisance protections for neighbors who experience the smell of cannabis, and fails to increase the current inadequate setback requirements.

The San Francisco law firm Shute Mihaly and Weinberger filed the attached letter on March 18 on behalf of Save Our Sonoma Neighborhoods. It opposes in detail the County’s proposal to vastly expand commercial cannabis cultivation in ways that would harm, among other things, our air quality, water supplies, aesthetics, and emergency access.

The comments make two issues crystal clear:

•        The County cannot legally proceed without doing a full environmental impact report to analyze the vast changes that they propose for Sonoma County

•        The County cannot legally adopt a backroom ministerial process where there is no public knowledge or participation.

Another submittal on these issues that Shute Mihaly and Weinberger filed on behalf of Friends of Mark West Watershed here.

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