LAKEPORT, Calif. – The opponents of a marijuana cultivation ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors last month have submitted signatures for a referendum to stop the new measure from taking effect.
The coalition of marijuana advocates making up the Emerald Unity Coalition and the Community Alliance to Ban Illegal Cannabis Cultivation submitted the signatures to the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office on Wednesday afternoon, a day before the county ordinance was to have taken effect.
Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said the raw count of signatures submitted totaled 4,222.
Of those, approximately 2,115 signatures – 10 percent of the entire votes cast in Lake County for all candidates for governor in the November 2010 election – must be certified as belonging to Lake County residents who are registered to vote in order to put the referendum before voters in the June 3 primary, according to Fridley.
Fridley and her staff now have 30 business days to certify those signatures. Her deadline is Feb. 28.
The Board of Supervisors on Dec. 17 passed the new ordinance with more stringent guidelines in response to what county officials reported were increased instances of violent crime, environmental degradation and impacts on neighborhoods arising from marijuana cultivation.
The new ordinance called for a ban on outdoor cultivation in community growth boundaries; limited plant numbers on parcels larger than one acre outside of community growth boundaries to six mature or 12 immature plants; prevented grows on vacant parcels; limited indoor grows to 100 square feet or less; kept outdoor cultivation 1,000 feet from schools, parks or other facilities serving children, and 100 feet from water bodies; offered quicker abatement; and made the Lake County Sheriff's Office responsible for enforcement.
Because cultivation is a land use and zoning issue, the board was able to put it into effect after one reading, rather than two, which is the norm for other kinds of ordinances.
The Board of Supervisors office reported that of the last seven zoning ordinances, going back over a two-year period, all of them were adopted after the first reading.
If the new cultivation ordinance had gone into effect on Thursday, it would have superseded the county's interim urgency ordinance approved in July 2012 and extended the following month.
That ordinance also banned grows on vacant parcels and didn't regulate indoor grows.
It allowed for larger plant numbers tied to parcel size: a maximum of six plants on a half acre or less, 12 plants with a 75-foot setback on parcels of half an acre to one acre, 18 plants and a 150-foot setback on parcels one to five acres in size, 36 plants and a minimum 150 foot setback on five- to 40-acre parcels, and a maximum of 48 plants on parcels 40 acres and larger.
Marijuana advocates told the board that they wanted to have the interim ordinance continued, but county officials maintained the ordinance was not succeeding in addressing the problems marijuana cultivation has created in neighborhoods and the county at large.
County Counsel Anita Grant told Lake County News that it's the county's position that, since the new ordinance didn't take effect due to the submission of the signatures – and is on hold until either there is a determination that there were not enough valid signatures or the referendum qualifies and voters decide on the county ordinance in the June primary – the interim ordinance remains in effect.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the interim ordinance lasts until July 6.
CABICC and the Emerald Unity Coalition reported that they intend to pursue a marijuana cultivation ordinance for the November ballot that won't ban “most outdoor cultivation as the board's ordinance does.”
The proposed ordinance would strictly regulate patient gardens and collective cultivators, and create a self-funded civil enforcement office in the county's planning department to regulate small collectives on larger parcels outside of town, the groups reported.
The groups believe those measure will make it more difficult for “transient criminal growers” to set up operations in Lake County.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, the groups wouldn't discuss particulars of their proposed initiative, and said they intended to survey “stakeholders” – which they said included not just marijuana users but those who don't use the drug.
However, afterward a Lake County News reporter was told by a group representative that a six-plant limit in residential areas was included in the draft.
CABICC's membership includes the Lake County Green Farmers and Citizens for Responsible Regulation, which led a referendum against a previous county marijuana cultivation ordinance and later put forward Measure D in 2012.
That initiative allowed grows as large as 12 plants on residential-zoned lots of a half-acre or less and invoked the Lake County Right to Farm Ordinance to protect growers from nuisance complaints.
Measure D failed in a 65 percent to 34 percent vote in the June 2012 primary, according to Lake County Registrar of Voters Office records.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.