LAKEPORT >> After working through the Commercial Cannabis Cultivation Ordinance for a second time, the Board of Supervisors has approved the document by a four to one vote.
The county can now begin to accept applications for commercial grows in designated areas.
The ordinance has been discussed and worked on for many months and was approved with its last few revisions. The board, upon approval, only needed to make two clerical corrections. These involved wording in regards to background checks and an update to the cultivation map.
County Council Anita Grant said these changes are small enough that there is no need for another reading of the ordinance.
“The only changes that can be made without affecting the ordinance are pursuant to the government code are clerical errors and or typographical errors,” Grant said. “You have an example here where you determine something is a clerical error and that’s fine but there won’t be too many of those in terms of what you’re finding, given all the time that has been spent on this.”
Community Development Director Bob Massarelli, whose staff has been working on getting this ordinance completed, said they will be putting together an application package for those who want to apply and there it will list the ordinance, the table of contents of it, fees and other information cultivators might need to know in regards to the permitting process.
Now that the cultivation has passed, the county’s Planning Commission is currently working on an ordinance for Commercial Cannabis Distribution and manufacturing. County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said this will not be ready for the board until After April 19.
With that, she recommends that the county not have their next Cannabis Workshop meeting and approved to change the date of the May 17 meeting to May 22, Tuesday, at 1:30 p.m.
“With the second reading of the ordinance occurring today, it will become effective after 30 days from today and a pause in the workshop calendar would make it possible for county staff to focus on the impacts and the workload associated with that,” Huchingson said.
