Memorandum
Date: September 23, 2025
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Mireya G. Turner, Community Development Director
Subject: Consideration of Request for Board Direction regarding Establishment of Ad Hoc Committee for Development of Agriculture Road Standards
Executive Summary: On August 27, 2019, the Board adopted Resolution 2019-124, Adopting Recommendations to Address Fire Safe Regulations Applicable to Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation. At that time, because the cultivation of cannabis had been labeled "commercial cannabis cultivation", there was confusion regarding the appropriate road standard requirements. In this case, the term "commercial cannabis cultivation" is meant to differentiate a legal and permitted activity from the pre-Prop 64 unregulated cannabis industry. The Board recognized that cannabis cultivation, even for commercial purposes, is a similar agricultural process to the cultivation of any other commercial crop in Lake County.
In addition to local regulations, Public Resource Code 4290 and 4291 provide for the implementation of minimum fire safety standards on certain real properties. These standards vary according to the type of activity taking place. The cultivation of agriculture crops are held to driveway standards, whereas commercial activity such as agricultural crop processing and manufacturing are held to commercial road standards.
Resolution 2019-124 provided clarification that cannabis cultivation permit projects, when limited solely to outdoor cultivation, qualifies for the same exemption to commercial road standards as other types of agricultural crops.
Although the agenda title limited Board action to cannabis cultivation, robust discussion took place regarding the establishment of road standards for all cultivation activities. The Board expressed interest in forming an ad hoc committee representing various aspects of the local agricultural industries, including but not limited to pear, walnut, ...
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