The escalating political tug of war erupting over Santa
Barbara’s emerging cannabis industry got a few more yanks this past week with
the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission soundly rejecting the first appeal
that body has heard challenging the validity of a land-use permit that had been
issued to a cannabis operator. In this case, the Planning Commission voted 4-to-1
to deny the appeal of land-use permits issued earlier this year to Graham
Farrar, the principal behind five greenhouses — which would occupy 356,000
square feet when built — at 3561 Foothill Road in Carpinteria.
County planners issued the permits to the farm — G&K
Farm/K&G Flower — on March 15. The issue dominating the Planning Commission
debate was the adequacy of the odor-control system installed and what the
county’s role should be in ensuring that they functioned as promised. Although
the commissioners upheld Farrar’s permits, they also voted to tighten up the
county’s regulatory language where odor-control issues are concerned.
Under existing language, compliance inspections would be
triggered if there were three complaints filed. At that point, the county
cultivator could order the grower to make necessary changes or be shut down.
Under the new language adopted by the Planning Commission, the county will hire
a private industrial hygienist — at the growers’ expense — to conduct regularly
scheduled inspections to ensure odor pollution is not occurring.
No cannabis is currently growing at G&K Farm/K&G
Flower, and it is not now the subject of neighborhood odor complaints.
According to planning commissioners, Farrar has taken pains to follow all the
rules and has already installed an odor-neutralization system. The appellant,
Maureen Claffey on behalf of Concerned Carpinterians, objected that the
effectiveness of the Byers Scientific system installed by Farrar was not
proven.
Critics of the cannabis industry have suggested that not
enough is known yet about long-term exposure to the vapors emitted by the Byers
system. Marc Byers, CEO of the company, took pointed exception to such comments
and delivered a detailed defense of his approach. He explained that his company
does not mask smells so much as change the molecular structure of the
odor-intense terpenes given off by cannabis plants. This, he explained, is done
by shooting a vapor cloud made up of water and essential oils into the air. These
molecules fuse with the terpenes to create a new compound that is not read by
the nose and brain as a smell.
Byers outlined how his company intends to test for errant
odors in the future. He is assembling what he called a “dream team” of odor-control
scientists and a team of six expert human sniffers — which he likened to
state-of-the-art taste testers in the wine industry, or sommeliers. Each of
these sniffers will be given air samples — collected in Kevlar bags at
successive distances from the perimeter of the cultivation sites — which will
be sniffed for evidence of cannabis’s tell-tale, pungently invasive aroma.
There was also extensive discussion about other technologies deployed to
control the smells produced by greenhouse cannabis.
This was the first of many such appeals that cannabis
critics will be filing. Some planning commissioners opined it was long on
emotion and short on legally supportable grounds. They did, however, take
concerns about odor pollution seriously. Their change, they hoped, will give
county regulators the tools needed to nip such issues in the bud sooner rather
than later.
In the meantime, the Santa Barbara County’s Cannabis Compliance
Team, made up of Sheriff's deputies, cracked down on what they claimed were two
illegal grow operations, one in Carpinteria and one in Montecito. The press
release issued by the Sheriff's department indicated 15 Armenian workers were trimming
weed at the Montecito property, which allegedly was connected to the
Carpinteria grow. That detail is of significance because among the many
concerns enumerated by cannabis critics is the involvement by Russian and
Armenian mobsters.
In addition, Sheriff's officers raided another processing plant this week located in Los Olivos. This reportedly was connected to an illegal grow operation in Lompoc. These enforcement actions were announced at a time when the county supervisors and high ranking administrators have found themselves under increasing political pressure to crack down on non-compliant operations.