Supervisors get tougher on cannabis compliancy

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approved an item Monday which allows County Cannabis Program Manager Kristin Nevedal to begin denying any of non-compliant Phase One applications, rather than continually extending the applications or issuing corrections.

Because large portions of applicants are non-responsive or have significant violations, Nevedal estimated that roughly only 10 percent of applicants are on track for approval.

“If we’re continually chasing folks who don’t respond to us we also don’t have the time to process the folks who are trying to do this right and get to an annual license and a full permit with us in the department,” Nevedal said.

The board also approved to increase the scope of outside coun

sel, Abbott & Kindermann, in order to assist in application denial. Their approval of the item also requires Phase One cannabis permit holders to show they hold a State Provisional License or prove they are not cultivating within 45 days.

The board also voted to look into aligning their cannabis code enforcement to Humboldt County’s model, as well as proposed the purchase of a satellite imagery subscription to help with code enforcement.

Nevedal said the satellite imagery service would not only help code enforcement find illegal grow sites, but also allow them to follow up on cultivation sites that are in the process of obtaining or renewing a license.

Supervisor Ted Williams suggested the county focus on enforcing larger grow sites with 26 plants or more in order to regulate larger, more damaging illegal cultivation.

“My issue isn’t somebody cultivating cannabis. I don’t really care. Get high, knock yourself out. It’s where it starts impacting neighborhoods or the environment,” Williams said.

As the year continues into warmer, drier months, water conservation issues tie into legal and illegal cannabis cultivation and how they impact water supply. Many plant and animal species could be threatened by the resulting water diversion and human activity of cannabis cultivation.

“It appears over 300 county cannabis cultivation applicants and permit holders lack a state provisional license, which is a legal requirement to cultivate,” a summary of request for the item states. For this reason, permit holders and applicants will have to prove that they have a state annual license, or that they are not growing within 45 days, in order for the county to begin enforcing code violations against illegal grows.

Calcannabis Cultivation Licensing Director, Richard

Parrott, explained that cultivators with Phase One provisional permits were asked to respond to the California Department of Food and Agriculture CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing division by April 5 with one of two forms in order to renew their permit and qualify for an annual license.

While the department received more than 700 responses, at least 150 provisional license holders have not responded and will have until April 30 to respond before their provisional licenses are revoked.

County Counsel Christian Curtis clarified that while some requirements for both the county permit and the state annual license may overlap, applicants must still qualify and hold both.

“These are parallel requirements,” Curtis said. “The cultivator does have to get both of these permits.”

The Board of Supervisors will discuss the revisions of to Phase Three permitting during a public hearing at its next regular meeting, on April 19.