The Community Voice Our supervisors are rapidly marching towards approving a cannabis ordinance that will significantly impact our wells and ground water at the same time that officials are asking for voluntary reductions in water use. According to the Napa County 9111 report, published in 2020, cannabis uses at least six times the amount of…
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EDITOR: Nearly every day I read another article about the severity of California’s drought crisis and how climate change compounds the impacts of drought. Many wells around Sonoma County are already critically low. Yet the public is receiving mixed messages from county leaders. Residents will need to conserve 30%-50% of water usage, Supervisor Linda Hopkins…
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We, the residents of Bloomfield, are extremely concerned about the eminent health and safety violations posed by the major revisions to the Commercial Cannabis Cultivation Ordinance of 2018, to our town, as well as other residential communities in Sonoma County. If any changes are to be made to the ordinance, they must be considered on…
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By Rollie Atkinson, Sonoma West Staff Apr 20, 2021 Narrow planning commissioners vote calls for a more comprehensive environmental impact study Plans of the Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors to streamline the permitting process for commercial cannabis cultivation may be headed for a detour following a close Sonoma County Planning Commission vote held last week…
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EDITOR: When I think of Sonoma County, I think of a picturesque drive through the countryside, through fields with cattle, orchards and wine grapes, trees and mountains surrounding me. The vistas are so wonderful and are the attraction for a dynamic tourism industry. All of this is in jeopardy if our supervisors vote for the…
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There are 300 permit applications in Sonoma County. Many appear to be out of town interests. The population of unincorporated Sonoma County is 146,739 So 0.2% of the population, at most, want to engage in marijuana production currently What price do the rest of us have to pay for those 0.2%? What are we willing…
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Commissioner, After listening to the Planning Commission meeting on 4/15 and reading the article in today’s PD, I am puzzled that you are worried about and are championing the small grower and think the amendments will help them. Don’t you know that Andrew Smith can already approve up to 10,000 square feet of cannabis cultivation…
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While county residents mull over the looming water scarcity brought on by two years of drought, our water crisis intensifies with the rollout of commercial cannabis, Napa’s “9111 Report” states cannabis water demand per harvest is six times that of grapes. That fact, added to grape taint, overspray, odor and aesthetics, led Napa county to…
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Community Rights, Health, News / April 5, 2021 Cutting out neighbors EDITOR: In their 2016 ordinance, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors promised that cannabis growing “would not be detrimental to health, safety, welfare or materially injurious to properties or improvements in the vicinity.” This is being sidelined in the new draft ordinance. Gone will be any ability for…
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Community Rights, News / April 12, 2021 The pandemic has given the supervisors cover to push through a campaign donor friendly agenda with little transparency. Supervisors Gore and Hopkins were the lead (cannabis ad hoc committee) in the cannabis regulations and they have failed to hear residents. There has been a steady drum beat of residents opposing cannabis in their neighborhoods and…
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