Housing and Development Newsletter
There are 270 acres of cannabis cultivation in the county associated with active state licenses (not all of those operators have local permits), and the majority of those operations are in the Lompoc, Santa Ynez and Carpinteria valleys, Yee reported.
Planning and Development issued four new land use permits, for a total of 21 to date. The majority of land use applications for growing marijuana are still in the review process.
There are applications for more acreage than is allowed under the county cultivation caps of 1,575 acres for inland areas and 186 acres for the Carpinteria area.
“This indicates that not all applicants will be able to reserve their acreage under the respective caps,” Yee said.
Cannabis tax income continues to climb in Santa Barbara County, with revenue hitting $4.2 million in the first quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal year, a 50% increase from the $2.8 million reported from the first quarter of 2019-20, according to a report to the Board of Supervisors.
The county is reviewing 23 applications for retail storefront licenses from six community plan areas, and nine of the 12 cultivators that were operating in existing developed rural neighborhoods have shut down after supervisors approved an ordinance amendment banning them from those areas, according to the report.
Enforcement operations are eliminating the large illegal cultivation operations, the report said, but more needs to be done to address small illegal operations.