Like Traffic? Revisions to cannabis ordinance will result in more than 2 million new daily road trips – on rural county roads

Sonoma County’s estimate for traffic in its 2016 (Mitigated Negative Declaration, p. 44) used these metrics:

A one-acre cultivation site or a 0.25-acre indoor operation can each require 12-15 employees during peak periods. Fifteen employees average 30 to 60 trips a day. 

Scaling up, and using the County’s lower employee figure, each acre of outdoor cultivation could employ 12 people and generate 24 to 48 trips per day.

How many would be employed cultivating the full 65,753 outdoor acres allowed under the proposal?

Using 12 per acre number (County said 12-15) = 789,036 employees

How many would be employed cultivating 8,289 indoor acres?

Using 48 per acre (County said 12-15) = 397,872 employees

Ignoring the employees cultivating in existing buildings, and the possibility of some parcels being allowed to cultivate more than 10% of parcel acreage = 1,186,908 employees (789,036 +397,872). 

This is about 2.4 times the current population of Sonoma County (496,000)

That’s 2,373,816 daily road trips on rural Sonoma’s small, often single lane, often poorly maintained roads

Astonishing. If you have tried to drive across Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol during peak hours you know how bad traffic is in our county. It can take a half hour+ to cross one of these towns.

Where will they live??? The proposal said no effect on housing.

How will they get around???  The proposal said no effect on roads.

Does this make sense to you? The time to act is now.