Planning commission recommends rezoning to allow second cannabis greenhouse on Outback Way

The Calaveras County Planning Commission on March 27 recommended the Board of Supervisors approve a zoning amendment that would reclassify 626 Outback Way (APN 140-100-41) from Residential Agriculture (RA) to General Agriculture (A1), allowing the property owner to apply for an additional cannabis cultivation permit on a parcel that already hosts a commercial greenhouse.

Planner Ben Diamond told commissioners the 40-acre parcel, just east of Jeff Davis Reservoir and west of Railroad Flat, currently hosts a roughly 34,000-square-foot polycarbonate greenhouse and supporting buildings. The applicant seeks the rezoning so it can colocate an additional cultivation operation, including a proposed roughly 30,000-square-foot greenhouse and, when funding allows, an additional vegetation building. Diamond said the parcel already has two wells and two septic systems and that the project is tiered from the county’s cannabis program EIR; staff prepared an initial study and a mitigated negative declaration to address site-specific impacts. “The requested zoning is consistent with the county general plan, the zoning code, and is consistent with neighboring and adjacent land uses and zonings,” Diamond said.

Neighbors and nearby residents urged greater scrutiny. Eddie Nelson Quintanilla, who identified himself as an owner of adjacent property, said his parents’ home now shows the operation from their viewpoint and that noise, light and ongoing odors have reduced their quality of life; he told the commission their property has already gone through three well replacements in the past due to regional groundwater stress. “This is not what my parents and us moved into this area for,” Quintanilla said. Another nearby resident, Starlin Patrick, described the applicant as “a great neighbor” who had addressed litter concerns but said road damage from heavy trucks remains an outstanding concern.

The applicant’s representative, speaking for Shaman NorCal Properties, Inc., said the family lives on the parcel and operates the site, and offered to work with neighbors on mitigation. The representative told the commission the applicant would be willing to, for example, cover the neighbors’ windows if interior noise is an issue and to install vegetative screening to reduce visibility. “We’re reasonable people,” the applicant representative said.

Staff summarized outside agency comments gathered during a 30-day circulation of the initial study: Caltrans said no state right-of-way impacts were expected; the Air Pollution Control District raised no objections but warned that any emergency generator over 50 brake horsepower would require an authority-to-construct permit; on-site wastewater noted no objection so long as the applicant complete the county EMA checklist used for ministerial cannabis permits; the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Department of Cannabis Control submitted general comment letters. East Bay Municipal Utility District requested annual, monthly and peak water use data; staff responded that no new wells are proposed and the county does not track cultivation water use in the detail East Bay MUD requested, although cultivation sites with wells must provide well tests in years 1–5 and year 7 per existing permitting requirements.

Diamond said the neighbor letters received did not change the conclusions of the initial study or require a subsequent EIR, and that site-specific potentially significant impacts can be mitigated through the proposed mitigation monitoring and reporting program. Staff recommended adoption of the mitigated negative declaration, the mitigation monitoring and reporting program, and approval of the zoning amendment as consistent with the general plan.

After public comment and a brief discussion of oak woodland mitigation (staff clarified replacement measures apply for trees over five inches in diameter), the commission voted to recommend approval and forward the zoning amendment to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision. The action is advisory; the Board of Supervisors will take the final vote.

The planning commission’s package and the staff report note conditions and mitigation that would attach to future permits if the zoning change is approved: greenhouse enclosure and a 150-foot property-line setback for colocated cultivation; mitigation monitoring to address biological resources and oak woodlands; compliance with state licensing through the Department of Cannabis Control; and agency-specific permits if the applicant installs a large emergency generator.

The zoning amendment now moves to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision; staff and the applicant said they would continue to work with neighbors on screening, dust control and road maintenance.