Protecting Neighborhoods and Environment from Large Marijuana Grows

By Zach Friend, County Supervisor, 2nd District

Over the last few months I’ve been working diligently on policies that would address a growing problem within our county: unmitigated marijuana grows in residential and rural areas and a possible proliferation of new marijuana dispensaries opening throughout our area. The Board of Supervisors has considered a number of policies regarding both cultivation and dispensary location and numbers over the last two months and I wanted to share my concerns about some of our recent votes on both.

I will start with cultivation. Currently, there is limited enforcement from code compliance because of a lack of clarity in local law and safety concerns associated with these grows and properties. I’ve seen photos of streams diverted and large swaths of land graded in our district with significant environmental degradation – all for marijuana grows. In addition, our office has fielded numerous complaints about large grow houses in residential neighborhoods throughout Aptos. We received complaints on everything from smells, to unsafe wiring to concerns about criminal activity within some of these homes that compelled my office to work on strong cultivation rules. I felt we owed it to the neighborhoods, the environment, law enforcement and other county staff to provide legal clarity and set legislative expectations about this issue. After all, it seems reasonable to me that you can live in a neighborhood free from homes converted into grow houses.

We have done this all while understanding that there is an overall local electoral desire to ensure safe access to medicinal marijuana either through dispensaries or small personal grows that are in non-habited structures (such as a garage). While there is clear disagreement on the Board of Supervisors over the best approach on this issue, we reached a unanimous agreement in late September over an ordinance that would ensure safe access while still protecting the environment, protecting our neighborhoods and providing strong enforcement and regulatory mechanisms. The proposed ordinance would have limited the size of grows in residential areas and rural areas and required strict adherence to environmental regulations as well. Dispensaries would have been limited to certain zoning areas with setbacks from schools and a number of other locations. Stronger regulatory authority would have been given to code compliance and law enforcement.

As we were set to adopt these regulations, there was a successful effort to split the two issues (so that we would consider them at different times) and loosen the regulations on dispensaries. On a 3-2 vote, with myself and Supervisor Caput dissenting, an ordinance that may double the number of dispensaries in the county (and could add as many as 6 more just in Aptos) passed the Board. In addition, some setbacks were changed or loosened, and other regulatory mechanisms reduced. This was done because of strong opposition from an organization representing the dispensaries. I voiced strong objections to these changes as I didn’t feel that those we were trying to regulate should draft these regulations. In addition, I was concerned about this potential growth in the number of dispensaries and the impact that would have in our area.

While the dispensary ordinance is more or less set, I intend to revisit cultivation piece. I would like to see something adopted that provides strong neighborhood and environmental regulations. It seems to me that we can accomplish both safe access and these protections and we can do this by tipping the balance toward protecting our neighborhoods and environment. It would be hard to argue that there is a supply issue in our county and that access is difficult. Therefore I think we need to reset the balance away from unmitigated grows and environmental degradation back toward the integrity of our neighborhoods.

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As always, I appreciate hearing your thoughts. Feel free to call at 454-2200.