Planning Commission approves 60-acre cannabis cultivation near Santa Maria

A cannabis cultivation project encompassing more than 60 acres southeast of Santa Maria was approved Wednesday by the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission after removing one landscaping requirement.

Commissioners voted 4-1, with Chairman and 1st District Commissioner C. Michael Cooney dissenting, to approve a conditional use permit for Gary Teixeira’s application to grow 60.4 acres of cannabis inside hoop structures along with a 2-acre nursery.

The project represents an expansion of a previously approved 37 acres of cannabis and an expansion and relocation of an existing 1-acre nursery at 4301 Dominion Road, according to a County Planning and Development Department staff report.

Cooney voted “no” on the motion to approve the CUP because it included removing a staff condition requiring “vegetative screening cover in the form of a vine, or similar, along all fencing at the property frontage of Dominion Road.”

The condition was added to Teixeira’s landscaping plan in order to meet the Land Use Development Code requirement that all cannabis cultivation be screened from public view, the staff report said.

“I don’t think it’s our job to change the ordinance,” Cooney said, although he agreed to eliminate screening where it wasn’t needed and to not specify the type of vegetation. “To me, the farmer is the best one to pick the screening solution.”

He was also concerned that dropping the screening requirement would prompt other growers to object to similar landscaping conditions.

But Commissioner Larry Ferini, a farmer whose 4th District encompasses the project site, supported Teixeira’s request to eliminate the requirement for additional vegetation.

Ferini said it would attract birds that would be harmful for surrounding agriculture, which includes strawberries, blueberries and lettuce, because they would roost in the landscaping, then fly across the street to eat the crops.

He said birds can spread salmonella, and if they penetrate a crop, it can not only be damaged by them eating it but it also has to be ripped out due to potential contamination.

“As a grower, birds are horrible,” Ferini said. “The reason [birds are] horrible is there’s no control.”

Sound blasts don’t keep them out because they become accustomed to the sound, he said.

“You’re still going to invite more birds into the area,” Ferini said. “To me, that would be encouraging a food safety violation in this area.”

When Cooney asked if there are any plants that don’t attract birds that could be used for screening, Ferini said he hasn’t found any.

“On a commercial farm, we just don’t have any landscaping,” he said.

Third District Commissioner John Parke noted the intent of the ordinance requiring landscape screening was to make cannabis growing as inconspicuous as possible.

“When you put it in an area like this, it makes it very conspicuous,” he said.

But Parke had an issue with the two-tier odor abatement plan, with the first phase consisting of orienting the hoop structures north-and-south across the prevailing winds and using coverings that would be lowered across the ends if winds shifted to north-south.

The second tier would involve installing a vapor phase system around the perimeter of the grow site if the first tier didn’t prevent odors from being experienced in residential zones.

Parke said that would prevent anyone in the surrounding area from complaining about odors and triggering the second tier because all the surrounding land is agriculturally zoned.

“Anyone should be able to file a complaint,” he said, including growers with workers in nearby fields who are being overcome by cannabis odor.

Fifth District Commissioner Vincent Martinez agreed, pointing out there are residences on agriculturally zoned land.

Staff said any odor complaint would be taken seriously and investigated.