Memorandum
Date: March 16, 2021
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Bruno Sabatier, Chair and District 2 Supervisor
Subject: Consideration of (a) Resolution regarding Early Activations for Cannabis Cultivation (b) new Ad Hoc Committee to review, revise, and revamp the cannabis cultivation ordinance of Chapter 21, Article 27.13 (at)
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
(a) Resolution
Early Activation has been a useful tool in getting cannabis cultivation applicants started as quickly as possible. However, certain aspects of the process need to be clarified to ensure that applicants are aware of what is required from them and what is required of the county to ensure compliance with CEQA. Good standing such as paying taxes, being appropriately licensed, and no violations of local or state code is necessary in order to request any new early activation permit if you are still working towards obtaining a use permit. All Early Activation processes require CEQA documentation to allow staff the ability to review the project impacts to the environment in order to make a decision on whether or not an Early Activation permit is appropriate for a project. A circulation of the project to the public and to the local agencies is a requirement of CEQA as well.
(b) Ad Hoc Committee
It has become more evident the more discussions that are had about our cannabis cultivation ordinance that it requires a full review. The ordinance was built prior to the final rules of the state and has been partially amended to fix certain aspects of the ordinance that were posing problems. However, it is my understanding that there may be a lot of room for improvement which can truly help reduce the timeline required to approve these applications. This would be greatly beneficial to both the applicants and staff in dealing with such a large volume of applications. I am requesting that the board approve the creation of an ad hoc comm...
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