Cannabis Law Group's Medical Marijuana Legal Blog
San Luis Obispo County Considers Marijuana Growth Ban in the California Valley
The legalization of recreational marijuana in California on November 9, 2016, brought a host of unexpected questions for the commercial cannabis industry. Municipal and county ordinances have created a confusing web of compliance requirements for marijuana cultivators, distributors, and dispensaries. And in some limited areas, marijuana is simply banned altogether.
County supervisors in San Luis Obispo County are considering a package of commercial cannabis regulations. Among other things, the drafted regulations prohibit the growth of marijuana in areas zoned as residential-suburban. The Tribune reports that this would include the California Valley and the entire Carrizo Plain. Limited groundwater and a high concentration of endangered species (the largest concentration in the lower forty-eight states, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) are reasons given by opponents in support of banning marijuana growth in the Carrizo Plain. This does not, however, give cause for banning marijuana grows in all other residential-suburban areas of San Luis Obispo County.