Interested in Learning More About Getting Your Cannabis Farm Compliant?

Marijuana leaf blue skyPress release:

There’s still time to get your farm compliant with Humboldt County Commercial Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance. Local consulting firms, led by AgDynamix farm services, are hosting a free workshop series on Saturdays through August 20th to help cannabis farmers and businesses meet the August 23rd Activity Registration Deadline. These workshops were made possible by a generous contribution from Wonderland Nursery.

These exciting and productive hands-on workshop events will be held at:
Ruth Lake Community Center, Saturday, July 3oth
Van Duzen River Grange in Carlotta on Saturday, August 6th
Mattole River Grange in Petrolia, Saturday, August 13th
Bayside Grange in Arcata, Saturday August 20th

Each workshop will start at noon and end at 6pm. Events will feature information, representatives and workstations with North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Humboldt County Planning Department and various other local agencies and consultants. Emphasis will be placed on clarifying the details of the permitting process, discussing cultivation and land use regulations, and networking and relationship building between professionals in all sides of the industry. Participants should come prepared to work on their forms by bringing parcel numbers and any existing maps or infrastructure permit information they may already have.

Call AgDynamix at (707)798-6199, go to www.AgDynamix.com, or find it all on FaceBook to find out more. This is your chance to secure your farm, your business, and your future in Humboldt County.

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Anon Forrest
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Anon Forrest
7 years ago

Given all the arbitrary BS loaded up on this issue, my answer to the posed question would be NO. af

Anonymous
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Anonymous
7 years ago

From what I’ve heard through the vine it runs about $50,000 to be compliant, large or small.

ED Denson
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ED Denson
7 years ago

Kudos to AgDynamix for setting up these workshops. They will give you a good introduction to the process and I encourage fence sitters to attend. Don’t expect to understand it all the first time you hear it. I’ve been giving my clients a couple of hundred pages of information and forms, and it just takes time to have it all sink in.

I am working with about 40 people on becoming compliant. The costs vary wildly from one to another because the lands being cultivated vary so much. Most of the cost is in becoming Water Board compliant, altho summer storage can be an issue too. The actual permits involved can run from under $2000 to over $5000, again depending upon the size of the garden and the topography of the land. However, some people are coming in under $10, 000 total, legal fees, permits, storage, site plans – the works.

People considering compliance need to move fast to commit. Aug 23 is the very real deadline for existing cannabis cultivation (existing means existing prior to Jan 1, 2016). The form that starts you off is 2 pages long with lots of blank space and costs nothing to file. New cultivation requires Prime Agricultural soil, and there is very little of that in the county. Look for it along the rivers – it is a soil laid down by floods. Permits for new cultivation are not subject to the Au 23 deadline, but again, that soil is rare.

You need legal advice to insure that you are compliant with medical marijuana law. Do not depend on what your friends or neighbors say – there is so much misinformation around (see the $50,000 comment) and the stakes are so high that you really want to be sure you are not just committing an expensive felony.

Anon Forrest
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Anon Forrest
7 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Thanks, Ed. I personally agree with your educated “takes” on this, but I believe the Small and Simple folks have been given short sheets, and as a result, folks growing and providing cannabis in the S&S fashion will remain prey for whatever social pogrom comes next… af

Honeydew Bridge Chump
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Honeydew Bridge Chump
7 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Is that yearly or a one time balloon payment?

Allison
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Allison
7 years ago

It will cost at least that, no joke. While many variables affect the cost of compliance (zoning, parcel size, length of time at said property, legacy issues, etc.), I’m willing to bet the average overall cost to get one parcel permitted for a 1/2 acre outdoor grow is closer to the $75000+ range. In 3-5 years, Humboldt County is going to be radically different than it is today…especially for mom & pop and their kids and grandkids.

N. Choiring
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N. Choiring
7 years ago

Do the fees collected go back into a general fund? Anyone know if the fees collected go directly into feeding and growing the bureaucracy that is “bureaucratting” things up? Are early compliers paying for salaries for future enforcement and inspection? Just askin’

Anon Forrest
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Anon Forrest
7 years ago
Reply to  N. Choiring

Precisely! I’ve worked in both CA and local governments, and the one thing I learned was that bureaucracies require problems to be solved, and yet to solve a problem means you’ve solved your job!
And do these bureaucrats lay track into the future of their jobs? You betcha! Sterling example is the Willits’ By-pass running on whatever was “planned” 30 years ago, with no reconciliation with the Here & Now. af

Old Thymer
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Old Thymer
7 years ago

The ‘ball park estimate’ for the ‘plan’ work that PWA says needs be done on my parcel is about $35-50K…. just for the Water Board permit qualifications. And, as ED says, properties have many differences, and mine too. I have many roads (that will get attention/$$; one I am fighting; to change a double culvert that works fine to a large single one), yet very environmentally designed gardens (that won’t need $), will need to build a small bldg for materials storage, etc, yet have some (very rare!) non-jurisdictional water (which will likely cause me to need no additional fresh water storage containers – have 11K gal now). Do plan to revive ponds (as part of my ‘plan’) and will have a design for using that for ag water, as/if needed.
Just seems to me it’s best to get on board sooner rather than later. (Likely easier for me since I have copious amounts of water).
And to N. Choiring’s question: I too assume that the early permit fees will support enforcement. Ironic, yet that’s the way it’s often done……

Teisha Mechetti
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7 years ago

Love waking up to the day to address more challenging questions. ED, thank you for clarifying on these things. Indeed each project variess greatly. It is safe to say permitting fees for environmental filings and County application are typically at or below 10k. There may be additional permitting in the future as well as inspections and maybe some consulting fees and retainment of legal counsel. But in all reality that is a drop in the bucket to get the process started. We understand at AGD that the small farmers are at the biggest disadvantage, as not many had the time to budget this past winter and this process is still so fresh. We find a way to work with our clients to help them in the application process. Whether they need to self-certify or need resources to assist them in their own planning. This is a no man left behind cause in our firm. You can bide most of your investments as you won’t be required to fix everything right away and let’s be honest in saying much of this process someone can do themselves with a little bit of handholding if they were really motivated to take it on. Let’s face the facts, larger investors without experience are not going to singlehandedly carry the medical market. It is the small craft farmers, generally speaking, that produce fine quality product that won’t change overnight and now mire than ever retail markets are going to need permitted craft farmers.

This is an investment, but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg unless you want it to. Penny for your thoughts. Call in if you have any questions about this process.

Livsimply
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Livsimply
7 years ago

Is it true that people under 2000 sq ft will be exempt? What happens to those of us that are growing 20 plants only?? The fees and red tape seem ridiculous for subsistence gardeners