It’s Wine vs. Weed in the Valley

In old western movies, it was the farmers and ranchers who were forever fighting over the wide-open spaces. In the Santa Ynez Valley, however, they’ve been supplanted by the cannabis growers versus the wine industry. Or so it would seem from last week’s deliberations in front of the County Planning Commission. 

That’s where three approved cannabis operations — all slated for Highway 246 just outside Buellton — had been taken to the Planning Commission on appeal, two by vintner Blair Pence, an especially outspoken critic of cannabis operations. Although all three operations were received differently by the commissioners, all had their wings clipped significantly. One was shot down outright, and the other two were approved but with heavy conditions. All three will almost certainly be appealed to the Board of Supervisors for final disposition. In some instances, it’s likely both sides will be doing the appealing.

Of the three, the Busy Bee proposal, run by entrepreneurial branding guru Sara Rotman, is perhaps the best known. Rotman had secured a much-coveted land-use permit to grow 22 acres of cannabis under 22 acres of hoop houses on property where she lives off Highway 246. Although Rotman marshalled considerable support from her immediate neighbors — even those growing grapes and broccoli — Planning Commission chair John Parke wasn’t buying it.