Cataloging the list of changes set for imposition on the ordinance governing unincorporated areas of SLO County – still under debate at the Board of Supervisors (BOS) after months of public input, drafting and approval at lower levels – is becoming a part time job for some.
Google Docs and Excel spreadsheets are at least handy in keeping track the dates and potential alterations from meetings that have dominated the Board’s time in recent weeks.
A recap: As reported here in the previous issue, on Oct. 20 the 3-2 majorities on the BOS, asked for a list of restrictions to the ordinance, which had passed their Planning Commission. After an Oct. 3 continuation to Oct. 17, another to a special all day meeting Oct. 20, the review looked set to conclude Nov. 7.
Additional public comment and a vote were expected, but did not occur on that date either.
The newest restriction agreed on by the conservative majority over the – at this point, strident but impotent – objections of Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill is to deny those who live in unincorporated areas of the County permission to grow their allowed six personal-use marijuana plants in their yards.
“You have plants that get so big you have to take a chainsaw to [them],” Sup. Lynn Compton went on record as asserting.
The comment conjures the outright humorous image of a row of six Cannabis plants with trunks comparable to eight–foot Douglas Fir being chopped down for Christmas.
In truth YouTube does offer videos of small tabletop plants being “harvested” with small chainsaws, but the usefulness of the method is debatable. More likely the association is drawn from a series of urban myths dating to 2005 that make a link between chainsaw use on illegal grow-ops, and the saws’ use as a weapon. In 2015 a fire in Mendocino County is believed to have been started in the backcountry by a chainsaw.
Compton’s comments were in defense of the mandate as a countermeasure to, as yet unverified, neighborhood odor issues, which she brought to the BOS at the last meeting, to the surprise of code enforcement staff.
With the County level change, adults growing the recreational plants under the terms of “The Adult Use of Marijuana Act of 2016” or Proposition 64 must keep their plants indoors.
That’s a slightly more detailed revision on the original terms of Prop 64. An informational page provided by the County Planning Department had explained already that, “All plants and harvested cannabis in excess of one (1) ounce must be kept within the person’s
private residence, in a locked space, that is not visible from a public place.”
Hearings are expected to continue Nov. 27.
Other items regarding Cannabis taxation will likely be continued until next year, after the holidays.
