Oct 20th 2025 Newsletter - The Board Hears Proposed Cannabis Rules on October 28th

It’s crunch time! Please read this newsletter and tell the Supervisors what you think!

The Supervisors will hold a hugely important public meeting on Tuesday, October 28^th,1:30pm, at the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, 575 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa. The Supervisors will make decisions on whether to accept or reject the 628-page Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIR), FEIR and whether to revise Permit Sonoma’s proposed ordinance to remove some of its worst features. Please urge your Supervisor to reject the highly-flawed Final Environmental Impact Statement. You can email all supervisors at bos@sonomacounty.gov

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BACKGROUND

‍Thanks to all who submitted comments on the Cannabis environmental impact statements and who attended the Planning Commission hearings. The Commissioners had insufficient time to study Permit Sonoma’s FEIR which is almost impenetrable. Residents raised many serious problems with Sonoma County’s dreadful proposed cannabis ordinance. Unfortunately, Permit Sonoma seems committed to ignoring residents and to catering to the cannabis industry. The FEIR’s responses to our comments contain inaccuracies, misrepresentations, omissions, and non-responses. The FEIR obfuscates instead of disclosing environmental problems associated with the proposed ordinance, the exact opposite of what CEQA is intended to achieve. The express objective of the Supervisors when ordering an update to the ordinance was to address neighborhood compatibility – the FEIR not only fails to do that but contains recommendations making the neighborhood compatibility problem even worse.

Permit Sonoma staff did its best to manipulate the Commissioners, using their questions as opportunities to direct them to the outcomes staff favored. They did not clarify or fairly present the facts and full range of options for the Commissioners’ consideration. Staff controlled the discussion and rephrased questions so that many critical items were glossed over, not fully discussed, or not voted on at all. Many serious flaws remain. Thankfully the Commissioners walked back a few egregious items. They increased setbacks for residences zoned residential to 1,000 feet and retained the minimum 10-acre parcel size for cultivation. Nonetheless, Permit Sonoma’s proposal mostly lines the pockets of a few big players in the pot industry at the expense of the health and safety of neighbors, agricultural workers, and our environment.

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Major problems with Policies being proposed: 

1. Setbacks:     
    
   • 100 ft setback from property line for homes on Ag/RRD zoned parcels. 15K homes being overlooked.      
      
     • Within  a 100ft of your property, the County proposal will allow a high-risk  commercial operation with water, odor, hoophouse, crime concerns.   Allow 104 events per year with consumption within 100ft of your  property.  Allow retail sales of pot within 100ft of your property  
      
     • Note  similar homes on Residential zoned lands (RR/RA), receive a 1,000ft  setback.    Schools and parks receive a 1,000ft setback. 
      
     • All  homes deserve protection regardless of how zoned
      
     • Families  at their homes should receive the same protection as when at school or  at park.   They spend significantly more time at home.
      
      
   • County  proposal also eliminates the setback rule that requires separation between a grow site and your residential building (300ft).  Why is  this being eliminated?  This is exactly what is needed and should be increased, not removed.  

2. Cannabis  Events:  Proposal is for 104  events per years.   Consumption allowed.    No cap of the number of sites that could have events.    No restriction on location (any Ag/RRD parcel).   100ft from home!
    
   • These  commercial activities will attract crime (dispensaries in cities are  already major crime targets) and encourage stoned driving on our narrow  roads. The County disingenuously claims the California Highway Patrol will enforce DUI laws but fails to mention that there are no DUI field  tests for marijuana. A study released this month found that 42% of drivers in Ohio who died in  vehicle accidents had high levels of THC in their bodies, averaging  six times the level most states use to define impairment.
    
   • Much  better to limit events to public venues such as County fairgrounds
 
3. Retail  at Cultivation sites: High risk to operator and  public.  No reasonable way to secure these locations from volent  crime.  Encourage Intoxicated drivers on rural roads. 100ft from  home!
    
   • See  comments under Cannabis Events above.  Same problems.  
 
4. Crop  Swaps (ministerial): The County’s proposal allows genuine agricultural crops (apples, grapes) to be “swapped” for  marijuana fields with no consideration of unhealthy air emissions, placement of ugly hoop houses (which will not undergo design review),   water use, traffic, crime, emergency evacuation, or other environmental  issues. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the County  ministerial crop swaps would endanger our water supply and biotic  resources, but Permit Sonoma ignored this trustee agency. The County proposes  to issue ministerial permits for crop swaps that never expire. There would be no opportunity for  public input.
5. Health and Safety law is eliminated in proposal:   The cannabis specific Health and Safety law is to be eliminated, the county to rely on vague general statue instead.  The problem is the protection in the current rules are not covered elsewhere in the County  Code!  Removing it sends the message that health and safety are not  important.
    
   • B-myrcene  is very fat-soluble and predicted to accumulate in humans (like how THC accumulates, in fat tissues), resulting in at least 20-fold higher levels than in animal studies where it does not accumulate -magnifying risk to people especially kids. 

  
• 6. Health  and Safety.  And Odor: Forcing residents to breath unhealthy emissions, including the carcinogen Beta-Myrcene, in their homes. 
   
  • The County admits its proposal will “expose a substantial number of people to odors considered objectionable.” Yet Permit Sonoma urges the Supervisors to decide that supporting an “industry” subsidized with our taxes, somehow makes those significant effects acceptable. Why is lose-lose acceptable?
• 7. Redefining Cannabis as Ag: This proposal doesn’t solve the conflicts; it just eliminates the public right to object. It’s not good land use planning, just an easy way out. Legally the County cannot redefine cannabis as Ag, it’s not allowed per State and federal law. County Counsel stated at the Planning Commission meeting, that no other counties use that terminology, yet our “leaders” march on
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Please come on October 28th and support our community and the entire county. Even if you do not wish to address the Supervisors, there will be opportunities to raise your hand to show agreement with speakers. This will help the Supervisors appreciate the importance of these issues to the quality of our lives.

We, the public, continue to have our work cut out. The Board of Supervisors’ decisions will determine our long-term fate – namely, whether we have the right to enjoy a safe, healthy, and peaceful life, home, and neighborhood.

‍Please Donate to Our Legal Effort.

‍It is expensive to fight Sonoma County’s marijuana program, which may require filing a lawsuit. Help support our legal and consultant work by donating generously to The Neighborhood Coalition, a tax exempt charitable 501(c)(3) organization..

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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:

1. Become fully aware of the cannabis ordinance changes at the County’s website that impact your property;
2. Visit Neighborhood Coalition Sonoma County to learn more ways you can get involved and help protect your neighborhood
3. 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

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