The Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on Tuesday, March 6th, to hear public comment on the direction the Board provided on February 13th regarding the future of cannabis regulations in unincorporated Nevada County. The Board also clarified a few policy decisions at the request of staff, as staff has started the process of drafting a revised cannabis cultivation ordinance.
Cannabis Environmental Impact Report
The direction provided by the Board at these last two meetings has supplied enough information for staff to start assessing the environmental review requirements of a new ordinance. Staff's assessment, based on the Board's direction to allow commercial cultivation up to 10,000 square feet outdoors on various zoned parcel sizes, is that a comprehensive EIR will be required for the County's new ordinance. This is consistent with six other counties who have recently amended cannabis regulations in response to Prop 64's passage. Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Yolo, Humboldt, Calaveras, and Kern have completed, or are in the process of completing comprehensive EIR analyses. Staff is reviewing these documents, as well as the state's EIR, and will utilize applicable analyses as much as possible to avoid duplication of efforts, while considering that the local conditions in each county vary widely requiring a custom environmental review for Nevada County. Although there is some discussion suggesting the County could rely on the State's Environmental Impact Report (EIR), Amber Morris, former head of the California Department of Food and Agriculture Cannabis Program, confirmed during public comment at the March 6th meeting that the state's EIR is not comprehensive and leaves many areas up to local jurisdictions to analyze based on local regulations and local environmental conditions. This level of EIR would require contracting with a professional firm to conduct the analysis at an estimated cost of $350,000 and would take at least six months to complete.
New Timeline
As discussed at the March 6th Board meeting, County Counsel's goal is to bring a draft ordinance to the Board for review in early May. After the Board has solidified its policy direction, Nevada County will be able to start the environmental review process. A cannabis ordinance cannot be officially implemented until the EIR is complete because any changes resulting from the environmental analysis will need to be incorporated into the final ordinance. With the typical environmental review process taking at least six months to complete, the County will not have a revised cannabis ordinance in place until late 2018 or early 2019 and the existing interim ordinance will remain in effect.
For more information, please visit the County's Cannabis Conversation website or contact the Community Development Agency Director Sean Powers at sean.powers@co.nevada.ca.us or (530) 265-1576.