Winchester Canyon Cannabis Grow Gets Green Light

The potential for strong cannabis odors coming from an outdoor project proposed for Winchester Canyon Road brought three appeals to the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on May 25, from the Bacara Resort, City of Goleta, and neighboring farmers Danny and Michael Cavaletto. By the time of the hearing Wednesday morning, most issues in two of the appeals had been settled the night before, the commissioners learned. They ultimately denied all the appeals, but not before neighbors protested the strong smell from previous grows at the property.

The farm, which is owned by Paul and Diane Garrett of Temecula, grows organic row crops on about 100 acres of the 349-acre property, which is bisected by Winchester Canyon Creek. It’s already had small medical marijuana grows from 2015-2018, and farmers Jack Motter and Jeff Kramer experimented with hemp in 2020 in conjunction with Allan Hancock College. 

Paul Garrett, who is 96 years old, had bought the land in 1965 and told the planning commissioners he was happy to be leasing it to two young men who “wanted to keep that organic thing going.” Motter explained it was tough to survive without the efficiencies of a larger farm but that cannabis fit the narrow layout of the ranch, which is on the canyon floor and flanked by ridges several hundreds of feet high. The cannabis crop would occupy less than 17 acres — about 12 acres under hoops, a half-acre nursery, and the rest in the open — but it would keep the farm viable, he said. The rest of the land would lie fallow.