Zoning allows LSB cannabis operation

In recent weeks, this page has published a number of Letters to the Editor and two guest commentaries opposing a commercial cannabis operation that could be located amidst a residential neighborhood in La Selva Beach.

The words “cannabis,” “commercial operation” and “La Selva Beach” aren’t normally juxtaposed, and all the letters and commentaries have decried the decision by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to essentially allow the business application to operate at 110 Crest Drive to proceed.

Three supervisors (Manu Koenig, Ryan Coonerty and Bruce McPherson), agreed the application can move forward; Supervisors Zach Friend and Greg Caput did not agree. Both said the cannabis community should be working in good faith with neighbors for an outcome that will keep both sides happy. That could be difficult. Friend led a motion earlier this year that halted until Oct. 19 all new cannabis licenses for operations on parcels zoned Commercial Agriculture which are adjacent to or within 500 feet of a residence.

Friend said he sought the temporary halt because of the impacts stemming from adjacent agricultural and residential land in his district. At the October hearing, however, he said a staff report on the application “read like an advocacy for the industry and did not contain a vein of neutrality in any stretch.” He felt the 400-foot setback approved by a board majority between outdoor growing areas and residential areas did nothing to resolve the conflicts.

To say the very least, the decision to proceed with an application that could take as long as a year to complete reviews, is vehemently opposed by neighbors. At the October hearing, 22 presented their case, citing the potential noise, odors and environmental damages they believe the operation will bring, along with the proximity to an existing preschool and the single-lane road’s unsuitability to larger-scale farms.

The cannabis industry – which has grown increasingly vocal in the Pajaro and Salinas valleys – reacted by painting the Crest Drive residents as elitist and even racist, since the operations employ large numbers of Latino and Latina workers.

Cannabis growers also point out that the average acre of cannabis grown in California injects more than $700,000 into a local community.

Neighbors’ opposition seems far from “elitist” or any other derogatory branding cannabis operators want to tar them with. Their objections are reasonable and would probably be shared by residents of most neighborhoods in the county – but what’s operative here is zoning.

Both Coonerty and Koenig spoke correctly that commercial cannabis operations, whatever you think of them, are both legal and protected. California, Koenig noted, requires the county to promote commercial agriculture in areas that are zoned for it, such as the Crest Drive area.

Coonerty said that Friend’s moratorium, if it stood, would have impacted up to 24 licenses in the county and eliminated half of all legally eligible parcels for cannabis cultivation.

He said the industry has been trying to play by the rules and conditions the county has created and that the Crest Drive application allows the community to have some input on reducing some of the impacts.

The out-of-the-area applicant, Merced Investment Co. LLC, says it doesn’t want to be in a neighborhood where they aren’t wanted and also are familiar with addressing environmental and operational concerns at their other locations in the Central Valley and are willing to do the same in La Selva Beach.

This story isn’t over yet. But Crest Drive neighbors may now be aware that commercial ag zoning permits an operation such as the one they have come to fear. They should also realize that even if the county attempted to change the zoning to residential, withe the potential to create more housing (and a new round of opposition probably), the state would not permit it in an area zoned for agriculture.

The best path forward is for the applicant to be good to their word and work with upset neighbors to minimize the impacts of a legally permitted commercial operation.