Regulatory Hurdle Cleared for 500 Mendocino Cannabis Farms as State Certifies Environmental Report
In a major development for the cannabis industry in Mendocino County, the State agency overseeing cannabis permitting has announced the completion of an environmental permitting hurdle that has prevented hundreds of local cultivators from obtaining state licensure. This clears the path for these cultivators, which they say has come just in time as provisional licenses are set to sunset in December 2025.
“This is huge news,” said Casey O’Neill of Happy Day Farms, a regenerative and sustainable cannabis farm in northern Mendocino. O’Neill’s family farm has been in operation for two generations, but they have been unable to obtain full state licensure – until now. “We’ve been in this really scary limbo, wondering if we’d have to shut this part of our farm down. We’re really hopeful that now the EIR has passed, we’ll get our annual license. It’s been a long time coming.”
The barriers to legalization for farms like O’Neill’s have been largely due to CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, and other land use regulations, which have cast uncertainty over the future of Mendocino cannabis for years. Mendocino Supervisor Ted Williams explained in a 2021 interview that unlike other counties, Mendocino’s permitting process did not generate the documentation the state required for adequate site-specific review.
With an estimated 99% of would-be legal cultivators in Mendocino operating under provisional licenses, a temporary permit allowing cultivation while meeting regulatory requirements, the state has now intervened. The Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) has certified an environmental impact report (EIR) for Mendocino, a critical step that DCC Director Nicole Elliott says brings them “one step closer to keeping Mendocino’s pioneering cannabis spirit alive.”
“We are just as excited as the cannabis cultivators in the area to have reached this milestone,” said Angela Abbott-McIntire, an attorney in the DCC’s Legal Affairs Division. The DCC will now continue reviewing applications to ensure provisional license holders satisfy all outstanding requirements, including Streambed Alteration Agreements, to transition them to annual licenses as soon as possible.
While some challenges may remain for individual farms, the EIR certification is a major breakthrough that is already bearing fruit. Casey O’Neill shared that his family farm has already received approval for their annual license, describing the process as a “wild ride.” With the support of a $3.1 million grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the DCC estimates their EIR will help double the number of Mendocino cultivators able to transition to annual licenses. The DCC says it is prioritizing licenses in the order of their renewal date next year.
Helpful links can be found here:
https://cannabis.ca.gov/2024/10/the-department-of-cannabis-control-certifies-environmental-impact-report-in-mendocino-county
For the audio version of this story, visit: Regulatory Hurdle Cleared for 500 Mendocino Cannabis Farms as State Certifies Environmental Report – KMUD | Redwood Community Radio
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Too little and too late for most.
Good news for Casey but most Mendo farmers will not have it so easy and they’re still capped at 10,000 sq. feet – less than a quarter acre – hard to call it a “farm” when you can stand in the middle and spit in every corner!
And the State EIR only helps some of the current applicants – throwing the rest overboard – and keeping the door all but closed for potential new applicants.
The real problem in Mendo is failure of the Supervisor’s to ditch their impossibly convoluted ordinance and adopt a land use permit system LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE STATE!
The $3.1 million could have been used to adopt a workable ordinance – but is there ANYTHING the Mendo Supes haven’t screwed up?
Just in time for $100 dollar pounds. This should get them all on their feet and help them compete against GlassHouse etc.
Yeah way to late. What do you think think the mom and pops money came from . You trinity and humboldt screwed the pouch about as much as you could have. Do you Remember that cop that returned Jeffery Dahmer victim no 13? That’s the same level of ineptitude . You couldn’t of sold us out harder. It’s bad enough we had to put up with your war on drugs in the 80s.now this huh. Trinity lost three supervisors ,I bet humboldt and mendo do to.
Yeah Tommy Chong isn’t a hippie. He is a capitalist, that pretended to be. 3.5 million feet is just greedy.
I really liked a supervisor in trinity used his position to get his farm. After what you have pulled in the 80s and now I don’t think mom and pop want anything to do with you . You reap what you sow.
Could you elaborate? None of Trinitys supes have licensed farms. Years back an appointed supe was a licensee, but those days are long gone.
Pansies are elated!
I tell ya, I’m head over heels! Me and my fellow pansies really gotta hand it to Newsom and te DCC? I especially liked the way he helped us cultivators by not letting us sell direct to consumers which will support the retailers so they can in turn sell more of our weed.
Words like keeping the pioneering spirit alive are extremely hollow. The people you legalized didn’t grow up here. You legalized the out of state grows, that everybody was complaining about. The people running northern California are dumb rednecked assholes.
That was never stated in the proposition. To believe that the governor-appointed board would allow you to do that was some dreaming for sure. But hey- they are letting you blow up grows and sell on the black market so you unofficially got that! Now go out and destroy your little mom-n-pop neighbors, take their market share and still go belly up…Lose your soul and then lose your land
You nailed it. They don’t understand mom and pop carried these county’s. They act like there is pesticides in the river. It’s amazing there is twenty miles of polluted water in the mad. But it’s cow shit and it been here longer then any of us. All this means is they are going to legalize another 500 out of state grows. And they will take their money back to their state this winter.
It was really great here when so much money from pot growing boosted the economy. It’s hard work growing weed. The Humboldt Brand is forever in marijuana history. History making. Legalization sucks. We’re just in a slump: be glad to grow when the bridges go down in the earthquake. And everyone will sure appreciate you brothers and sisters ❤️.
Get your wallets out boys, here they come again!