Two separate cannabis-related items came before the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, as the board went forward with a proposed acreage cap on cannabis cultivation and heard the county's official response to a grand jury report issued earlier this summer on cannabis taxes and expenditures.
There was little discussion before the board unanimously approved the plan to reduce the acreage cap of both the "Carpinteria Agricultural Overlay" district and the unincorporated areas of the county that lie outside the Carpinteria overlay. The county has been working on reducing the acreage cap from the current total of 1,761 combined acres to a maximum of 1,551 acres — a 12 percent reduction that would essentially cut off any additional cannabis cultivation projects that haven't yet begun the approval process.
The previous Carpinteria Agricultural Overlay district was capped at 186 acres. There are currently 132 acres of permitted cannabis cultivation operating with another two acres that have already been submitted for approval. The new district maximum for Carpinteria, effective in late September, would cap production at 134 acres.
The acreage cap in the unincorporated areas of the county outside the Carpinteria district was previously set at 1,575 acres. The board approved a reduced cap of 1,417 in those areas, which allows for the 1,314 acres already in use and 103 acres that have already been approved or submitted for approval. The board approved the new acreage caps in a 4-0 vote.
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