The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors reaffirmed a cap on cannabis cultivation Tuesday.
That cap applied to the unincorporated areas of the county, with limits at 1575 acres. They also strongly recommended requirements to have odor controls and merit-based applications for licensees.
An appeal against the application of G & K Farms for a cannabis sales permit was also denied, and the project in Carpinteria will go forward.
Owner Graham Farrar says he has followed all the rules set up by the county.
Tina Frontado, one of the founders of cannabis education group KopSun, says the new cannabis industry will be better than the struggling flower industry.
The change would have "no more huge refrigerated semi[-trucks] pounding the 192, close-looped irrigation, no more chemical pesticides," Frontado says. Instead, Frontado says the cannabis industry would bring "the offering of living wages and the renovation of super-dilapidated greenhouses."
Concerned residents said the cumulative effect of cannabis operations in the valley were not taken into consideration.
