Cannabis rules accepted by City of Carpinteria, now head to Coastal Commission

IN a 5-0 vote in the Nov. 26 City Council meeting, council members voted in favor of approving the draft ordinance regulating commercial cannabis regulations citywide.

Following adult-use marijuana was legalized state-wide in 2016, the City of Carpinteria implemented a moratorium on industrial cannabis actions so as to investigate commercial cannabis growing operations and also to obtain feedback from the neighborhood. The moratorium period allowed the City to specify regulations which could best fit the area, and required the City to have ordinances on the books before May of 2019, once the moratorium ends.

Approving the draft ordinance doesn’t immediately enact the regulations, but instead, it’s passed an additional step in the procedure –the ordinance nevertheless has to be approved from the California Coastal Commission.

Throughout the interview, discussion of this issue contained an exhaustive staff report investigating a lot of their preceding study and community opinions. Many members of the public made comments in favor of and against industrial cannabis surgeries in Carpinteria.

Some of the chief concerns mentioned were that the odor, amount of sound and expansion of the buffer zone (regions within 600 feet of a school, daycare or gym where commercial bud can’t be increased ). Other members of the public were worried about upticks in offense and the impact which cannabis expansion will have on Carpinteria.

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Community celebrity Maureen Foley Claffey browse the correspondence to the editor that she wrote, printed from The Washington Post (“A not-so-high remark of California bud”), that reacted to the Oct. 14 Post article, “Space for bud one of the pinot,” that analyzed the cannabis business in Carpinteria. Claffey said:”The post commissioned local voices for viewpoints on the black market growers that drifted up over night free of odor management, the absence of authorities for illegal operations, the armed robberies in local cannabis farms at the last calendar year, the present’grow’ surgeries adjacent to the regional high school, or even the proliferation of armed guards and barbed-wire fences which have transformed the city into a jail-like landscape”

Despite these issues, many in attendance were in favor of the law, citing the degree of control and security it might supply to the City and authorized growers, noting that a lot of the problems stem from illegal grow operations rather than lawful and controlled ones. Industrial cannabis grower and neighborhood house owner Casey Dalton commented,”I am a mother and I am a home proprietor, and now that I get the’not in my garden’ but I could discuss with you is that law brings security, and regulation pushes from the black market, and regulation is where we will need to go.”

Echoing those sentiments, council members voted to transfer regulation ahead in the industrial research playground with an expansion of this 600-foot buffer zone. Monday’s vote coped with property use, while constraints on the dimensions and quantity of prospective business cannabis operations will be contemplated once the City generates a licensing plan for these companies.

South Coast Youth Task Force upgrade

Coordinator Saul Serrano in the South Coast Task Force on Youth Safety gave an update on the major work the Task Force was performing in Carpinteria and surrounding communities. The Task Force has been operating for the previous eight decades in and about Carpinteria and is made up of 37 members that meet quarterly in addition to a Strategy Team and also a Service Provider Network that meet more frequently. The company’s mission is”to enhance and encourage the security and quality of life for youth, their families and the neighborhood ”

The Task Force began by focusing on youth participation in gangs and youth in the machine, and the amounts of both have diminished in the last several decades. Furthermore, the amount of youth admitted to Juvenile Hall has also decreased during this time period. Serrano noted that between 2016 and 2017 there was an uptick in these amounts, which the Task Force is tracking, but equally gang participation and amounts of incarceration are well under the information from 2009 when the Task Force began its work.

Serrano provided a comprehensive report on some of the team’s initiatives, such as Mental Health Services, Jobs and Job Skills Connection, Immunology and Expedited Services, Assessment, 211 Youth Resource Guide, and Service Provider Coordination. In addition, he mentioned that in the long run there is going to be a place on their site for public link –a location where the Task Force is going to have the ability to collect information directly from the general public.

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Winter is arriving

Throughout his report, City Manager Dave Durflinger emphasized significant seasonal information for taxpayers. In coming weeks, both Winter Storm Readiness and Emergency Alert and Preparedness meetings are scheduled and will be available to the general public. The first will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 5:30 p.m. in the Veteran’s Memorial Building. A Spanish-language meeting will be held at St. Joseph’s Church at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 10. To learn more and to see an up-to-date evacuation map, then see readysbc.org/.

Along with storm prep, plans to build the winter berm on the shore are put to start Dec. 3, together with work continuing through Dec. 7. The building activity is going to be on the shore between Linden and Ash paths, and the general public is requested to steer clear of the busy construction zone in this time period.