Carpinteria Valley Cannabis Approaches a Milestone

Acreage Cap Soon to Be Filled While Odor Control Lags

This cannabis greenhouse at 5980 Casitas Pass Road uses an odor-control system that sets up a curtain of mist to neutralize the smell of pot. Many residents have complained that the mist smells like laundromats. (Photo taken from an application to the county.) | Credit: Courtesy

This summer, cannabis growers will likely hit the county’s 186-acre cap on zoning permits in the Carpinteria Valley, now the largest greenhouse pot-producing region in California.

It’s a milestone that will trigger two critical deadlines: one of perhaps six months, officials say, for “legal-nonconforming” operators without permit approvals to stop growing cannabis altogether; and another, of perhaps a year, for growers with approvals to obtain a county business license or lose their place under the cap.

The Carpinteria Valley is now the largest greenhouse cannabis-producing region in California. | Credit: Melinda Burns

That’s good news for the citizens’ groups that have sought to rein in the lucrative and stinky industry that has taken over the valley’s old flower greenhouses since 2015. But the milestone that many residents yearn for is much more elusive — an end to the “skunky” smell of pot that wafts into homes and neighborhoods and travels along with drivers on local roads, a smell that many say brings on headaches, nausea, and breathing problems.