The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission this week postponed a vote on a zoning permit for a large cannabis operation in Cebada Canyon, a bucolic community of rural ranchettes northwest of Lompoc, noting that Sheriff’s Office deputies raided the premises just four months ago, confiscating $1 million in alleged contraband.
The permit would allow 16 acres of cannabis cultivation in hoop houses and one acre in greenhouses on a 102-acre property owned by Avo Vista Farms LLC at the end of Cebada Canyon Road. Herbal Angels, a non-profit corporation and the project applicant, ran a cannabis operation on four acres there.
In mid-December, Herbal Angels was raided by 20 members of the Sheriff’s Cannabis Compliance Team. On March 13, the county District Attorney’s office filed charges in Santa Barbara County Superior Court against the owners — two counts of felony perjury and falsification of public records, and two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana for sale and violating of the state health and safety code.