Brief Truce in Carpinteria Cannabis Wars

Van Wingerdens Make Pact with Neighbors, Sets ‘Gold Standard’ for Odor Control

Cindy and David Van Wingerden, owners of CVW Organic Farms, have agreed to install new technologies and implement an extensive odor monitoring and response plan to help address the noxious smell of cannabis that persists in hot spots throughout the Carpinteria Valley. | Credit: Ryan Calderon

For the past three years, the “skunky” stench of marijuana swirling around Carpinteria, penetrating homes, schools, parks, beaches, freeway lanes, and even funerals at the cemetery has pitted neighbor against neighbor as the cannabis greenhouse industry exploded just outside the city limits.

Now, some technological advances — combined with a groundbreaking odor-control agreement between one of Carpinteria’s oldest farming families and several members of the citizens’ groups that have fought for tighter regulation of the cannabis industry — are upping the ante for future projects.

County Planning Commissioner Mike Cooney has called the Van Wingerdens’ odor control plan the “gold standard” for the industry. | Credit: Courtesy

The pact between Cindy and David Van Wingerden of CVW Organic Farms and members of Concerned Carpinterians and the Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis goes well beyond what’s required under the county’s lenient (some would say, grossly lax) cannabis ordinance.