Southern Humboldt Cannabis Nursery Revisited, Re-approved

Property under discussion [Screenshot[

In an unusual turn, a permit for a Southern Humboldt cannabis nursery has been revisited and re-approved.

At its April 16 meeting, Humboldt County’s Planning Commission approved a special permit for a Briceland area nursery a second time.

The first time was last February but after the approval, it was determined that the hearing was incorrectly noticed, bringing the permit back to the commission.

The 10,000 square-foot Briceland area operation began as a bamboo nursery in 2005 and converted to cannabis in 2012. It operated in compliance under an interim permit through late 2025, when the interim permitting program ended.

The permitting involves land use changes, including a zoning change from commercial to agricultural and reduction of a streamside buffer from 100 feet to 20 feet.
Located near the intersection of Old Briceland Road and Briceland-Thorne Road, the nursery’s driveway, parking area and the footprint of an onsite residence are within a 100-foot Streamside Management Area (SMA).

The residence is unpermitted and County Senior Planner Steven Santos said the rezone will “make it much easier” to bring the residence under an after-the-fact permit.

Santos said the SMA reduction is one of the permit’s primary issues.

He told commissioners that Mikal Jakubal, doing business as Plant Humboldt LLC, the permit applicant, disagrees with a 20-foot SMA setback and believes a setback isn’t needed.

Santos said complete elimination of the streamside setback isn’t supported by the county or the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

The SMA reduction is “extraordinary in itself,” he continued.

He added the streamside in question – Redwood Creek – is a “perennial class one fish bearing stream in an impacted watershed.”

Allowing the buffer reduction will take the nursery’s parking area and residence – which is unpermitted and needs an after-the-fact permit – out of the SMA.

Santos also said there’s disagreement about requiring an after-the-fact permit for a rainwater catchment pond and removal of bamboo from the SMA.

He added another point of disagreement is prohibition of generator use.

The staff recommendation was to approve the permit with the requirements intact.

There were no takers for a public comment period and Jakubal wasn’t in attendance.

Commissioners didn’t support changing any of the conditions.

“I will not waver on the removal of the bamboo,” said Commissioner Todd Fulton. “It’s an invasive species and if it’s already in the stream, it’s probably already backing the creek up.”

Addressing Santos, he added that reducing the streamside buffer seems “a little excessive in reduction size” but “if you went out there and you looked at it, I’m assuming that you felt that 20 feet was acceptable.”

Santos said the reduction size is based on the site’s historical use, environmental conditions and conferring with the CDFW.

“If something is on the margin, they will let us know and they will say, ‘that’s a bad idea,’” he continued. “So this is really the maximum that is within the comfort zone to accommodate the history of the site, the need to protect the resource and finding a pathway to allow the continued use of the site.”

Another factor is the size of the project parcel.

“This is a smaller parcel than we’re used to seeing with cannabis applications,” Santos said. “So if this was a 100 acre parcel, a 100 foot setback is not going to really take up much of the usable space. A 100 foot setback here, I believe, would take up a significant portion of the applicant’s property.”

Earlier in his presentation, Santos said allowing a cannabis nursery at the site is consistent with previous use and “staff believes there is a need for cannabis nurseries to support the local cannabis industry.”

The operation is within setbacks of neighbors and a school bus stop but the neighbors and the school district have agreed to waivers of the county cannabis ordinance’s setback standards.

The commission unanimously voted to re-approve the permit with the staff-recommended requirements.