In simply the most recent instance of a Santa Barbara County hashish enchantment squashed by the California Coastal Fee, an enchantment of a 25,000-square-foot G&Ok Farms processing plant at 3561 Foothill Street in Carpinteria fell by throughout Wednesday’s assembly, however not earlier than commissioner (and Santa Barbara metropolis councilmember) Meagan Harmon shared her frustration with the unending wave of marijuana-related appeals popping out of the county.
“It’s not with out some frustration that I discover us once more having one other dialog associated to a hashish enchantment,” Harmon mentioned. “It’s clear there are apparent points on the county degree that have to be addressed.”
This most up-to-date enchantment was filed by Carpinteria resident Sarah Triguero, who has been no stranger to preventing the unfold of the hashish trade within the county. Triguero has filed a number of appeals of hashish initiatives, together with an earlier enchantment in opposition to G&Ok Farms and considered one of its co-owners, Graham Farrar of Glass Home Farms.
Triguero, who lives within the La Mirada neighborhood close by, beforehand appealed the identical Foothill processing warehouse mission in June 2021 on the Santa Barbara County Planning Fee, arguing that the “noxious hashish fumes” put the neighboring residents’ high quality of life and well being in danger. The Planning Fee struck down the enchantment 4-1.
This time round, Triguero filed an enchantment of the identical property, contending that the mission would have an effect on the water high quality in close by creeks by releasing chemical substances into the setting in the course of the “vapor part odor management” course of and that the 25-foot-tall hashish processing plant would have an effect on public view from the Toro Canyon Ridge Path.
Throughout that fee listening to, Triguero additionally argued that the county’s determination final yr to vary the hashish acreage cap to make processing crops exempt has basically allowed “limitless hashish processing acreage for essentially the most odorous side of hashish manufacturing.”
She fearful that governing boards had been too targeted on a “slender, blinders-on, standard-only” evaluate course of, and that initiatives needs to be checked out throughout the larger context. She additionally contended that hashish growers had been benefiting from “extra permissive” codes in coastal areas, and that if the mission had been positioned extra inland, “it might not be allowed.”
The Coastal Fee workers report discovered no substantial points relating to what was included within the enchantment, saying that the processing facility can be geared up with all mandatory odor-abatement tools and that G&Ok Farms has obtained all correct permits for the property, which already has been in agricultural manufacturing utilizing greenhouse tools for greater than 45 years.
Concerning the argument that the constructing would have an effect on public views, Coastal Fee workers mentioned that the Toro Canyon Ridge Path was greater than a mile away and “most of Carpinteria Valley is seen from the path,” so the general public views are protected by distance.
The fee obtained eight public letters in help of the enchantment, although fee workers mentioned not one of the letters raised any new points that weren’t already addressed.
All 11 commissioners unanimously agreed that there was no substantial difficulty with the mission, ruling that it was in step with the insurance policies and provisions within the county’s native coastal plan.
Regardless of the ruling, Commissioner Harmon thanked the appellant and different outspoken neighborhood members for the “watchdog position that they play in our county,” saying that though there was no authorized difficulty with this mission, their work helps county management come to phrases with modifications which can be wanted in hashish laws.
“That’s clearly essential and modifications are being made,” Harmon mentioned. “Not rapidly sufficient, actually, however transferring in the fitting course.”
