The right climate?
County supes to discuss Lockeford cannabis project
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will consider approving a development plan for a commercial cannabis project in Lockeford on Tuesday that has many residents and neighbors concerned.
The applicant, a Wyoming-based company called NRC Equity Fund 1, has proposed building a commercial cannabis business park at 12470 East Locke Road that will include cultivation, distribution, manufacturing and retail operations.
According to Tuesday’s agenda, the project has met opposition from the Lockeford Municipal Advisory Council, the Lockeford Community Services District, the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation and 14 neighbors.
In addition, three separate petitions of opposition have been submitted to the San Joaquin County Community Development Department with a total of 42 signatures, staff said.
Concerns raised by opponents include traffic, air quality, groundwater supply or contamination, noise, crime, lighting and property values, among others.
In the Farm Bureau’s letter, president David Strecker said the project is located near several schools, including Lockeford Elementary and Victor schools, and that the county does not have the resources to patrol the area.
“Legal growing in other regions has attracted vandalism, theft, and violent crime that we do not wish to further invite into the rural landscape of our county,” Strecker wrote. “Cannabis is a highly sensitive crop that will directly impact neighboring agricultural operations financially through contamination lawsuits, theft losses and labor issues.”
The project would be completed in two phases over five years, the first of which includes building four greenhouses totaling 110,610 square feet and a 15,120-square-foot nursery. This first phase would also convert an existing 19,872-square-foot building into a processing and storage facility, along with distribution and manufacturing uses.
A second existing structure totaling 13,226 square feet would be used as an employee break room, as well as mobile delivery services, cold storage and drying uses.
A 367,180-square-foot storm water retention pond would also be constructed in the first phase.
Patti Stetson, chairwoman of the Lockeford MAC, said in her letter to the community development department that the project has too many risks and inadequate or unaddressed details that would have a negative impact on the community.
She said delivery trucks leaving and entering the property would be targets for thieves, as the industry has been a traditionally “cash only” operation, and one security guard, armed or not, was inadequate to patrol a 23-acre complex.
“I have serious concerns of how a cannabis business can even be considered in unincorporated San Joaquin County,” she wrote. “The voters of San Joaquin County voted against such businesses. This seems to be circumventing the people’s vote.”
While 2018’s Measure B — the cannabis business tax measure — failed at the November polls, supervisors six months later approved an ordinance that commercial cannabis businesses be required to obtain a development agreement with the county in order to operate.
In addition, the ordinance allowed all types of cannabis businesses to operate in unincorporated areas of the county as long as they comply with two existing ordinances that can be found online at www.sjcannabis.org/commercial.a spx.
Lawrence
Pilmaier wrote that he lives several hundred feet from the project’s proposed entrance, and he said the number of delivery trucks leaving and returning to the business park would increase traffic on local roads, as well as an already congested Highway 88, and Highway 12.
“Traffic routinely exceeds the posted speed limit of 35 and 45 mph on Locke Road, and vehicles often travel at excessive rates of speed, exceeding 60-70 mph,” he wrote. “There is very little traffic enforcement on this road. Vehicles often use Locke Road as ‘shortcut’ between Highway 12 and Highway 88, and traffic is already excessive.”
The community development department responded to concerns raised by neighbors and Lockeford residents prior to an April 15 planning commission meeting, asserting that a traffic study conducted last fall determined the project would generate less than 110 vehicle trips per day, and that property values are not a determination for land-use applications because they do not fall under the purview of their department.
In addition, staff said all commercial cannabis operations will be conducted indoors, so there will be no odor or noise issues, and the applicant must have a security plan approved by the Sheriff’s Office as part of the requirements of county ordinances.
Zach Drivon, a Stockton attorney representing the applicants, addressed residents’ concerns at the April 15 county planning commission meeting, stating the site would be secured by concrete and fencing. He added that an increase in criminal activity does not correlate with the establishment of legal, regulated cannabis businesses.
“We know this project has not come without concerns and criticisms,” Drivon told the commission in April. “We have worked diligently to provide as much information and due diligence as possible to reassure community members and leaders alike that this project can be developed and operated safely without creating any inconveniences or nuisance to the surrounding community.”
If approved Tuesday, the project would be the first cannabis business to operate in unincorporated San Joaquin County.
There are six dispensaries and retailers in Stockton, as well as two delivery services.
Jennifer Jolley, deputy director of planning with the community development department, said on Monday that 10 commercial cannabis land use permit applications have been received since 2019, of which three were withdrawn.
One permit is under review and another was deemed incomplete for processing, she said, while three more were only preapplications, meaning the projects were given a cursory review by departments but no environmental review was completed and public notice was not given.
Tuesday’s public hearing begins at 1:30 p.m., and can be viewed online at the board of supervisors’ YouTube channel.