Santa Clarita City Council looks set to forge forth with another look at the ordinance to ban commercial land use for marijuana and pot businesses. Restrictions also look set to be placed on private residences with regards to growing, even if just for private use.
A meeting was held on the 27th of March and the results look like they are rattling the feathers of a few cannabis business owners in the Santa Clarita City, including pot delivery to pot valet businesses.
The Santa Clarita City Council members were quick to stop businesses from popping up in the Santa Clarita City after Californian voters voted to pass the Proposition 64 back in 2016. The council members were set on preventing all types of cannabis businesses to put their roots down in the Santa Clarita city, from pot delivery businesses to pot valet services in Santa Clarita.
In December 2016 the city council moved to pass a moratorium to prevent land to be used for commercial cannabis growth and distribution. This gave the council extra time to perform studies and research to plan an efficient implementation of the new regulations that Proposition 64 brought with it. However, the city council had extended this moratorium at the beginning of 2017, leaving many landowners and prospective business owners in the lurch.
Although the Proposition 64 does not give individual cities the option to prevent the rights of citizens to grow up to six cannabis plants, the Proposition does give the council the option to regulate the growing of marijuana, within reason.
On the 27th of March, last Tuesday, the city council held a vote which gives the ordinance a public hearing and then at a later time the ordinance will receive a second hearing. The city council looks set to pass and approve the proposed restrictions.
According to the agenda, the purpose of the ordinance seems to be part of establishing essential regulations like safety and energy distribution. an essential part of the ordinance is to prevent cannabis businesses and marijuana-related businesses not permissible to acquire a permit to work from home.
Those citizens who wish to grow from their home would have to do so within certain restrictions. Plants will only be allowed to be grown within an enclosed and secure building and they will not be permitted to be grown on balconies, courtyards or garages. In essence, no cannabis plants will be permitted to be grown in any outdoor area.
The reason for this, according to Dave Peterson the associate planner of community development for Santa Clarita, is for public health and safety. Peterson says that the reason plants should not be kept or grown in an outdoor area is that it encourages an environment for crime. According to Paterson, individuals would try to steal plants and the odour could also be a problem if the plants are outdoors.
Peterson also says that the odor of the cannabis plants are a complaint of residence and the restriction on outdoor plants addresses the odour issue.
The ordinance also addresses the odour issue, which Peterson claims is a primary complaint. The ordinance comes with many standards aimed at regulating cultivation within certain health and safety measures. one such rule is that “Cannabis cultivation and storage shall not produce odours that are readily detectable beyond the boundaries of the residential property where the cannabis cultivation and storage is located.”
This rule directly speaks to the odour of the cannabis and it does not matter if the cannabis is grown indoors, or outdoors. The odour is not permitted to permeate beyond the boundaries of the property where the cannabis is being cultivated.
In addition to this rule, there is another that relates to the growing and cultivation of cannabis within a multi-unit property. The ordinance states that the cannabis cultivation and storage are not allowed to have odors permeate to the adjacent unit.
These ordinances are important for cannabis business, from Santa Clarita pot valets to pot deliveries and cultivators.
The ordinance states that the cannabis cultivation and storage are not allowed to have odours permeate to the adjacent unit.