July 9 2025 Newsletter DEIR Comments due by July 15
July 9, 2025
July 9th, 2025
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE – MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ABOUT THE PROPOSED CANNABIS ORDINANCE AND KEEP SONOMA COUNTY HEALTHY
The July 15th deadline is looming for submitting your letters to the Sonoma County (SoCo) Planning Commission regarding the draft SoCo cannabis ordinance. That draft contains virtually no protections for residents and neighbors who don’t want cannabis growing right next to them or who don’t want to be overwhelmed by the cannabis stench every time they go out into our beautiful county. The draft reflects a lopsided pro-cannabis influence and takes away many current protections for neighbors.This is your chance to be heard. This issue impacts everyone living in Sonoma County. If this draft is adopted, it will change the very essence of our community. Many members of the Neighborhood Coalition have submitted persuasive letters to the SoCo Planning Commission, but we need more. We urge you to submit your letters of opposition detailing your reasons.Here are some of the specific aspects of the draft which you should consider discussing and which substantially impact all of us, making Sonoma County vulnerable to this cannabis takeover:
- Crop Swaps - Beware: A field of grapes or an apple orchard can be “swapped” to 10 acres of cannabis without any environmental review of water, odor, or other issues. In other words, neighbors living in a peaceful, traditional agricultural area where grapes and apples are grown suddenly are living next to acres of cannabis. The draft would endorse this backdoor process and neighbors would have no prior notice or opportunity to object.
- The draft cannabis ordinance allows vineyards to be “swapped” for marijuana plantations without any consideration of water, unhealthy odors, or other environmental issues. You might wake up one morning and discover that permits have been issued behind your back and they never expire so your new “cannabis neighbor” is there forever.
- Air/Odor Pollution: The draft fails to acknowledge the airborne emissions from cannabis grows and the impact of the well-recognized wind shifts in our county. The proposal provides no protection from these noxious odors, forcing neighbors to breath unhealthy odors including the carcinogen, Beta-Myrcene, in their homes. The draft provides no mitigation requirements such as adequate setbacks and lot sizes to protect neighbors from these health threats.
- Neighborhood Compatibility Not Achieved: While claiming improving neighborhood compatibility is the priority, the proposal for a 600-foot setback quickly reveals that representation as a sham as it only applies to a small subset of properties (Homes on Ag zoned properties aren’t included). Though the current ordinance is inadequate, even it provides better setback protection than the proposed draft for many residents.
- Exclusion Zones Omitted: For almost a decade, the County has invited neighborhoods to submit requests to be deemed Exclusion Zones, prohibiting cannabis cultivation and sales in specified neighborhoods. Now, “poof,” the proposed ordinance contains no mention of Exclusion Zones. This failure is consistent with the absence of any effort to achieve neighborhood compatibility or to provide mitigation from the cannabis health threats.
- Parcel Size Reduced: The proposed ordinances reduces the minimum lot size for cultivation from 10 to 5 acres, inflicting nuisances on more neighbors and more exposure to the noxious and unhealthy odors. In other words, more cannabis grows can be shoe-horned into unsuspecting neighborhoods often with no opportunity to object.
- Setbacks Reduced: The minimum setback of a cultivation site from your home and property is reduced from 300 feet to 100 feet. Your new next-door neighbor might be a field of huge, stinky cannabis plants with noisy workers. Your only recourse may be to move away. We recommend a minimum of 1000 feet for setbacks.
- Unlimited Events and Retail allowed most everywhere: The proposed ordinance would permit weekly events, including sales and consumption in rural areas as well as retail sales and consumption at “farmstands.” Imagine the behavior of drivers after purchasing and imbibing cannabis as they drive stoned on narrow rural roads. In addition to the dangers on the roads, these rural events and sales of cannabis will attract crime with scant law enforcement to protect the innocent.
- Redefining Cannabis as Agriculture and eliminating your right to object: Contrary to State law, the County is trying to treat cannabis as a “controlled agricultural crop.” The similarities are non-existent. Agriculture promotes food, not drugs. This effort by the County is stunning and unprecedented. No other county or city in the State treats cannabis as agriculture and this hybrid definition the County is trying to create has no basis in fact or in law.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
Emailyour concerns by July 15th and voice your objections to:
Send your emails and letters to:
PlanningAgency@sonoma-county.org
larry.reed@sonoma-county.org
Shaun.McCaffery@sonoma-county.org
Tom.Bahning@sonoma-county.org;
Webster.Marquez@sonoma-county.org
cc your Supervisor with your emails and letters
Board of Supervisor’s emails
1st District:Rebecca Hermosillo Rebecca.Hermosillo@sonoma-county.org
2nd District:David Rabbitt David.Rabbitt@sonoma-county.org
3rd District:Chris Coursey district3@sonoma-county.org
4th District:James Gore District4@sonoma-county.org
5th District:Lynda Hopkins Lynda.Hopkins@sonoma-county.org
Please send a copy of your letter to sonomaneighborhoodcoalition@gmail.com
SUPPORTING THE PUBLIC GOOD
Your family’s health, home and neighborhood are more important than catering to a failing and harmful commercial industry. Please consider the following:
- Become fully aware of the cannabis ordinance changes at the County’s website that impact your property;
- Visit Neighborhood Coalition Sonoma County to learn more ways you can get involved and help protect your neighborhood
- Make a donation You can donate online , or you can mail a check to:
Sonoma Neighborhood Coalition
PO Box 1229
Sebastopol, CA 95473
Our campaign to preserve what we all hold near and dear needs your support. Your tax-deductible donation will fund technical experts and our legal team that are critical to our effort to require the County to protect our environment, children, and the health and safety of our neighborhoods.The Neighborhood Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, volunteer-based, dedicated to advocating for proper cannabis and land-use policies that benefit the community. All donations support these efforts.
Thank you for your support and donation.
The Neighborhood Coalition team