‘Anti-Cannabis’ Sentiment Biases the Redwood Valley MAC Meeting, Alleges Grower

Story by Monica Huettl

On February 14, 2024, Redwood Valley resident Shannon Montoya told the standing members of the Municipal Advisory Committee about her neighbors Remi and Zoubeida Zajac whose cannabis production was causing her and her family several problems.

Montoya claimed the Zajacs were encroaching onto her property, causing problems with her well by keeping sheep and pigs and their waste near the well, putting porta-potties near the fence line, attracting illegal camping by cannabis laborers, and generally strewing trash in the neighborhood. Montoya told those in attendance that efforts to speak to her neighbors, the Zajacs, had not been successful. 

Montoya shared that the Zajacs were in the process of applying for a “setback reduction” with the County of Mendocino’s Planning and Building Department. If the Zajac’s application was granted during a hearing scheduled for the very next day, their cannabis cultivation would not have to comply with the current 100-foot setback from the neighbor’s property line. 

Moved by Montoya’s testimony and the urgency of the impending hearing, the Redwood Valley MAC voted that night to write a letter to Planning and Building asking them to deny the Zajac’s setback reduction application.

But, the MAC and this reporter soon learned there was much more to the story. 

Though Dolly Riley, Chair of the MAC, initially found Montoya’s testimony “compelling”, as she learned more about the Zajacs she learned that Montoya’s testimony was largely “unsubstantiated.” 

Despite the MAC’s initial vote to write a letter to Planning and Building voicing opposition to the Zajac’s setback reduction request, Riley told us that, “MAC members subsequently learned that no permit was required, and the letter was never sent.”

After reading of Shannon Montoya’s claims in our reporting on the recent MAC meeting, cannabis cultivators Remi and Zoubeida Zajac told a vastly different story, backed up by Mendocino County Superior Court records.

The Zajacs told us the reason for the lack of communication between them and Montoya is that Montoya’s husband, Christopher Marvin Dick, is prevented by a Protective Order from contacting the Zajacs, effective until February 16, 2026.

Why? Because he was convicted of felony negligent discharge of a firearm as a result of an incident in which he fired a gun in the direction of the Zajac’s minor son. Dick is on formal probation until February 16, 2025. 

The Zajacs moved to their property in 2014 and told us harassment from Montoya and Dick goes back years. Dick fired towards the Zajac’s son in October of 2020, and the case spent over two years in court before the judgment and protective order were issued. Dick requested several continuances before the case came to trial. The Zajacs, who are from France, were dismayed by the slow process of the case through our court system.  

The Zajacs comply with the applicable cannabis and other county ordinances, despite at least two code enforcement complaints that the Zajacs suspect came from Montoya, although the records are redacted as to the name of the complainant. The code enforcement complaints were investigated and dismissed. 

As far as the pending permit application that was the subject of discussion at the MAC meeting, Scott Ward, Building Permit Acquisition Consultant, said that the Zajacs were given erroneous information from the County Cannabis Department’s outsourced consultant, 4LeafConsulting.com. 

The Zajacs’ permit was issued in 2018, before the 2020 revised property line setback ordinance. Their permit was grandfathered in under the old ordinance. The permit application for a setback reduction was not even necessary, but 4Leaf did not figure that out and the Zajacs were charged a hefty fee for their unnecessary application. Remi Zajac expects to receive a refund from the County for the permit fees. 

Remi Zajac is concerned Redwood Valley’s Municipal Advisory Committee’s reaction to Montoya’s claims “was inappropriate and points towards a serious bias in the board.”

Zajac called out member Chris Boyd for what he described as a “singular focus on anti-cannabis advocacy, and unfortunately, her position gives her power to express it.”

Zajac was critical of the fact the MAC “took position right away . . . without considering that there could be another side of the story.” In Zajac’s eyes, this suggests the MAC “does not actually represent the whole Redwood Valley community in a fair manner, which goes against the goal stated purpose/mission of the MAC.” The whole situation has left Zajac wondering, “Is the board being hijacked by anti-cannabis activists?”

The Zajacs have been invited to speak at the March MAC meeting.