Santa Barbara County Supervisors Take a Pass on Stricter Pot Permits Countywide

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors tinkered with its cannabis ordinance this week, promising immediate relief to 500 residents of North County canyons but angering Carpinterians and Buellton-area vintners who said the proposals would do little to restrain an industry they view as running rampant and unchecked.

In its biggest move, the board voted 3-2 in concept to ban commercial cannabis cultivation and processing in rural neighborhoods such as Tepusquet and Cebada Canyons northeast of Sisquoc and Lompoc, respectively, where residents have clamored for such a measure for years. At countless hearings, they have recounted how the generator noise, truck traffic, night lights, and “skunky” odor of industrial-scale cannabis were disrupting their country way of life.