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An ordinance regulating hemp cultivation was launched Tuesday by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors after they added a cap that may forestall any enlargement of the industry in the interim.
Supervisors voted 4-1 to introduce the ordinance with the addition of the acreage cap, which 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson opposed and led him to vote “no.”
The ordinance could have to come again for last adoption on the Feb. 1 assembly and, if accredited, will grow to be efficient 30 days later.
According to a report from the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, regulating hemp will value about $20,000 a 12 months, which is anticipated to be recovered by way of registration charges and bonds posted by growers to cowl the price of destroying a crop if its content material of delta-9 THC — the energetic ingredient in hashish — exceeds 0.3%.
Supervisors added the acreage cap — at 180 acres, roughly the quantity at present being cultivated for analysis for Hancock College — to the workers’s proposed ordinance after listening to public considerations about odor and conflicts with conventional crops.
Claire Wineman, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, requested supervisors to add land use necessities to keep away from the identical conflicts vegetable growers have encountered with hashish cultivators.
Nancy Emerson of WE Watch additionally mentioned the ordinance ought to have a land use factor, however she urged the board to ban or restrict hemp as a result of it has all the identical issues, besides being unlawful below federal legislation, that hashish has.
“All [the ordinance] does is increase the unresolved problems with the cannabis ordinance,” she mentioned.
Marc Chytilo, representing the Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis, mentioned the county is creating further odor and enforcement points, including that some hemp cultivation produces the identical odor as hashish.
“It’s legal now,” 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson mentioned. “What we’re doing today is actually making it more restrictive.”
Lottie Martin, deputy agricultural commissioner, mentioned on the top of Hancock College’s analysis program, 12 growers had been cultivating hemp on about 352 acres. That’s now down to eight growers and about 179 acres, with the biggest plot 102.5 acres.
Supervisors famous the ordinance that was launched is simply the primary effort to regulate the industry, they usually anticipate the laws to be refined and expanded sooner or later.
“The way I see this is this is the first step,” mentioned 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart, including it’s “not the last step. … I support what [staff is] proposing today to get us on a path to regulating what until now has been unregulated.”
Hart additionally questioned how a lot hemp would find yourself being grown within the county as a result of the worth of the land would make it unprofitable when it may be grown in different areas the place the land is cheaper.
First District Supervisor Das Williams mentioned he wished to give you a cap on acreage, though he mentioned it ought to “not be set in stone.”
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino instructed a 200-acre cap, however he was additionally involved concerning the prices and advantages in contrast to hashish, noting “one generates revenue, the other generates odor without revenue.”
Nelson identified that some natural vegetable growers are utilizing hemp as an off-cycle crop to cleanse the soil and protect its well being, and he apprehensive about stopping that use.
“I want to make sure we’re not closing the door on other farmers using this as part of their cycle,” he mentioned. “I’m going to have a hard time with a cap.”
Growers will likely be given a one-year “amortization period” to register their hemp operations earlier than the cap goes into impact.
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