Memorandum
STAFF REPORT
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Mary Darby, Community Development Director
Prepared by: Eric Porter, Associate Planner
DATE: August 11, 2022
RE: Center Grow / Jason Jones; Modification (MMU 21-24) to a Use Permit (UP 18-32) for Commercial Cannabis Cultivation and Initial Study (IS 21-37); Project Location: 26066 and 27084 Jerusalem Grade Road, Middletown (APNs: 013-017-62 & 66)
Supervisor District 1
ATTACHMENTS: 1. Vicinity Map
2. Original Conditions of Approval
3. Modification Conditions of Approval
4. Agency Comments
5. Revised Site Plans, dated 8-25-2021
6. Water Analysis; dated March 11, 2022
7. Initial Study (IS 21-37)
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On October 8, 2020, the Planning Commission approved Use Permit UP 18-32 for one acre of outdoor cannabis cultivation on the subject site.
On August 31, 2021, the County received an application for a modification to the cultivation area to enable the applicant to convert one acre of outdoor cannabis cultivation to 1/2 acre (22,000 sq. ft.) of greenhouse "mixed light" cultivation.
The project, following this modification, will result in a slight decrease in water usage. The proposed greenhouse buildings are specifically intended for mature cannabis plants, and the overall cultivation area will be reduced by almost half from what had been approved under UP 18-32.
The greenhouse buildings are to be constructed in an area that had been previously disturbed by medicinal and adult-use outdoor cannabis cultivation beginning in year 2017. The site had also been burned in the Valley Fire in 2015. Dead trees were removed, and the proposed expansion area was surveyed by the Biologist and Archaeologist prior to the 2018 use permit submittal. No additional impacts to any of the 21 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) categories were determined to occur with this project.
The 79 acre subject site is accessed by an existing private access way located on Jerusalem Grade Road, an...
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