Wednesday’s appeal hearing for a Carpinteria Valley cannabis grow became an hours-long dissection of the county’s odor-control regulations, and the Planning Commission voted to grant approval for the project but with additional conditions.
County staff approved a coastal-development permit for operator Graham Farrar’s greenhouse cultivation site at 3561 Foothill Road, and it was appealed by Maureen Claffey, with the Concerned Carpinterians community group.
The group has concerns about the project’s proposed odor-abatement plan, which uses a Byers Scientific vapor phase system, and whether it will be adequate to meet ordinance regulations to prevent marijuana odors from being detected in residential zones.
“Concerned Carpinterians chose to appeal this first county-approved project because this project is a microcosm for the myriad problems inherent in the cannabis industry here,” Claffey told the Planning Commission.
Claffey raised doubts about the effectiveness of the vapor phase system – with PVC pipe wrapping around greenhouse buildings dispersing “neutralizing agents” through small holes 24/7 – for greenhouses that use large vents.
She said Farrar’s project is a test case as the first Planning Commission review of the Byers Scientific system and called for third-party testing to see that it objectively works.