Title
HEARING - To consider Final Passage of amendments to Title 130 - Zoning Ordinance County Ordinance Code to amend the Matrix of Allowed Uses in Article 2 (Zones, Allowed Uses, and Zoning Standards) and adding Chapter 130.43, Cultivation of Industrial Hemp, to enact regulations for the cultivation of industrial hemp pursuant to the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program Concept and recommending the Board of Supervisors take the following actions, based on the Planning Commission’s Recommendation:
1) Find that the adoption of this Ordinance is exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) based on CEQA Guidelines 15307, 15308, 15060(c)(2), and 15061(b)(3);
2) Adopt and authorize the Chair to sign Ordinance 5168 amending Title 130 of the County Zoning Ordinance; and
3) Direct staff to return to the Board one year following the effective date of the ordinance for an update on the pilot program.
FUNDING: Application Fees, General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
On December 7, 2021 the Board directed staff and the joint working committee on industrial hemp, comprising two members of the Community & Economic Development Advisory Committee (CEDAC) and two members of the Agricultural Commission, to 1) continue to explore if all concerns raised in regards to law enforcement and safety issues, impact to neighbors, county cost to regulate, and internal county staffing capacity can be successfully addressed in an ordinance; and 2) by the end of 2022, to bring back an ordinance for an industrial hemp pilot program or an ordinance for the permanent ban on industrial hemp.
On September 13, 2022, staff presented the work of the Industrial Hemp Joint Working Committee and recommended to the Board to pursue the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program Concept, as well as to enact a ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp due to the impending expiration of the interim moratorium on industrial hemp on December 6, 2022 (Legistar 21-1516). The Board directed staff to retur...
Click here for full text