County Planning Commission Votes for Stricter Cannabis Regulations

To the extent the cannabis genie has gotten out of the bottle throughout Santa Barbara County — as some critics contend — the County Planning Commission voted last week to try to jam it back in. By a vote of 3-2, the commissioners embraced new and stricter regulatory hoops for would-be cultivators to jump through. 

If such measures are eventually adopted by the county supervisors, cannabis cultivation on agriculturally zoned land — on parcels less than 20 acres — abutting urban and suburban areas would be required to obtain conditional-use permits first rather than a simple land-use development, as is now the case. The conditional permit is harder to obtain, requires more review, and gives neighbors and critics more of a venue to object.

The two dissenting commissioners objected not because the new rules were too strenuous but because they were not strenuous enough; they preferred an outright prohibition.