By Melinda Burns
The county Planning Commission this week denied a zoning permit for Island Breeze Farms, a small greenhouse pot operation across Foothill Road from the Polo Condos at the western end of the Carpinteria Valley -- the first time the panel turned down a cannabis project in the region.
Wednesday’s 4-to-1 vote comes as the county, pressed by valley residents, starts to reexamine the industry-friendly regulatory environment it created with the cannabis ordinance of 2018.
A county proposal to start measuring the skunky smell of pot at greenhouse property lines in response to complaints from residents is under review at the commission. A special hearing on the matter has been set for Jan. 22.
According to county planning staff, it is impossible to pinpoint which of the 20 active cannabis greenhouse operations clustered around the City of Carpinteria are to blame for the pungent odor of marijuana that continues to plague “hot spots” in the valley. In effect, 3,900 odor complaints filed with the county since early 2018 have not been enforced.
One of the neighborhoods where the smell lingers is the Polo Condos, an exclusive community of more than 300 people next to the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club.
Island Breeze, located at 3376 Foothill just 100 feet from the entrance to the condos, has been a target of numerous odor complaints from residents over the years. So have other, larger cannabis greenhouse operations in the vicinity, including, most notably, G&K Produce at 3561 Foothill and Autumn Brands at 3615 Foothill.
From La Mirada Drive, a hillside community, to Padaro Lane along the beach, valley residents have complained for years about the smell of pot, which they say triggers health problems such as asthma, headaches, sore throats and watery eyes.
“My thought at this point is, we don’t make matters worse by allowing this project to go forward because others have been successful in doing that and are operating and are creating difficulties not only for people who might be sensitive but just for ordinary people trying to live out their lives in the Carpinteria Valley,” Michael Cooney, a 20-year veteran of the commission who represents the area, said Wednesday, as he urged his colleagues to vote against Island Breeze.
“It’s time for this county to get an enforceable set of rules in place,” Cooney said in an interview after the hearing. “… You don’t make a situation better by continuing blindly to give permits out.”
A new standard? As grounds for their decision, the commissioners cited the ordinance regulation that states that growers’ odor abatement plans for commercial cannabis operations “must prevent odors from being experienced within residential zones.”
It was the first time this language had been invoked by the commission to deny a permit.
The Island Breeze applicant and property owner, Robyn Whatley Miller of Thousand Oaks, can appeal the commission’s ruling to the county Board of Supervisors.
Any appeal would be heard next year, however, with a new county supervisor, Carpinteria Councilman Roy Lee, on the board. Last March, Lee, an outspoken advocate of stronger regulations for the cannabis industry, narrowly defeated Das Williams, a fellow Carpinterian and chief architect of the cannabis ordinance.
Whatley’s attorney, Josh Lynn, said Wednesday there was no proof that the odor residents are smelling is coming from Island Breeze, given the proximity of other greenhouses. He asked the commission not to single out the project for denial. Since 2018, the county has approved 171 acres of cannabis greenhouse operations in the valley.
“Nobody else has been held to this standard that has been announced today,” Lynn said, noting that the smell of pot lingers at other locations around the valley, such as along Foothill Road, around Carpinteria High School, and on Highway 101 and Casitas Pass Road.
“I don’t believe you can have granted all these previous projects and then cut this one out because of some perceived science that doesn’t exist that measures where odor is coming from,” Lynn said. “Island Breeze Farms hasn’t had an odor complaint come to it for more than two years. This county is making an exception because there’s so much pressure on it.”
But Jessica Norris, a neighbor of Island Breeze, urged the commission to consider that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“I have battled and survived high-risk cancer,” she said. “More migraines and feeling nauseous due to the cannabis smell would have a negative impact on my quality of life.”
“Moving the goalposts.” Island Breeze is the last of numerous “legal, non-conforming” greenhouse operations in the valley to be reviewed by the commission on appeal, following over-the counter approvals by the Planning & Development director.
The board allowed the growers in these operations to sign affidavits stating that they had been growing medicinal marijuana before early 2016. They were then allowed to continue cultivating and to expand their operations without zoning permits or business licenses, so long as they applied for them.
In 2021, the county sued Island Breeze, alleging that the owners had engaged in “unfair competition” by operating without a county zoning permit or business license. The complaint further alleged that the owners had not “diligently pursued” getting a permit. But in May this year, the county dropped its lawsuit without explanation.
Wednesday’s hearing was the third before the commission on Island Breeze.
The project had been approved by Planning & Development and was appealed by the Polo Condos homeowners association and other neighbors. It would expand cultivation to two acres of cannabis in 13 greenhouses, with five harvests per year. Currently, cannabis is under cultivation in five greenhouses.
In the past, Island Breeze has relied exclusively on a “misting” odor control system that is used at most valley greenhouses: the system is designed to neutralize the smell of cannabis after it escapes out of the vents on greenhouse roofs.
At a hearing in June, the commission told company representatives that their odor abatement plans must include state-of-the-art carbon filters called “scrubbers,” a technology that has been shown to remove much of the smell of pot before it can escape through the greenhouse roof vents.
But even after Island Breeze representatives returned last month, and again on Wednesday, with a plan to install 44 scrubbers, the commission said the odor abatement plan for the operation fell short. Some of the dilapidated former flower greenhouses have not been upgraded for cannabis, and the plan did not include a way to verify that the scrubbers would cancel out the odor, Cooney said.
Lynn said scrubbers have already been installed in the active greenhouse at Island Breeze. The total number of scrubbers planned is “far and above what our scientific consultants have said is necessary to keep odor out of that property and away from the neighboring property,” he told the commission. “The amount of planning to deal with this odor is actually quite stunning in this case. It’s not inadequate.”
Commissioner Roy Reed, who represents Orcutt, Los Alamos and a portion of the wine country west of Buellton, cast the sole vote in favor of Island Breeze. He said he couldn’t recall the commission requiring growers at other greenhouse operations to verify that their abatement plans would eliminate the odor of cannabis.
“ … So that creates some uneasiness for me,” Reed said. “If it indeed is being imposed on this application, is that being arbitrary? … It smacks of moving the goalposts, moving the thresholds throughout the process.”
Commissioner Laura Bridley, who represents portions of the Goleta Valley and Santa Barbara, disagreed, saying, “I have struggled in this cannabis program to find a way to work around this ordinance, which I think has been proven to be a failure.”
Bridley is an urban planner: she was appointed to the commission in 2019. In the past, she said, she should have looked for ways to challenge more cannabis projects, based on their inconsistencies with the county’s land-use regulations.
“I sort of failed my professional credo in not doing that,” Bridley said, casting her vote against Island Breeze. “The world has changed by virtue of the ordinance coming for a fresh look, by virtue of perhaps new technology — carbon filters; and a change in the political environment that is moving forward in ’25.”
“Lessons to learn.” In interviews, Bridley and Cooney said they viewed the upcoming Jan. 22 hearing on cannabis enforcement as the beginning of a broader discussion on necessary ordinance reforms.
Many residents, including Supervisor-elect Lee, favor requiring scrubbers to be installed in all valley greenhouses. Many want the growers to phase out their “misting” systems: the “laundromat” smell of the mist, they say, can be just as noxious as the smell of pot.
Cooney, who was appointed by Williams, will continue to serve on the commission as Lee’s appointee.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Cooney said: “We’ve had a lot of lessons to learn about governing cannabis operations. Even some of the growers have regretted that they got into the business, which has turned out not to be a finding of gold in their change from growing flowers to cannabis.”
Commissioner John Parke, who represents much of the wine region west of Buellton where outdoor cannabis has taken root, told his colleagues he could go either way with his vote on Island Breeze but would join the majority.
Was the vote a sign of things to come? Parke is not sure.
“I am curious whether the planning commission and the board from now on will enforce that language with other projects, the way we’re doing with Island Breeze,” he said in an interview, referring to the prohibition on creating odor in residential zones. “That could be troublesome for members of the industry.”
Melinda Burns is an investigative journalist with 40 years of experience covering immigration, water, science and the environment. As a community service, she offers her reports to multiple publications in Santa Barbara County, at the same time, for free.
Image: Planning Commissioner Mike Cooney (courtesy photo).
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