Lake County supervisors narrowly reject ordinance to deny incomplete commercial cannabis permits pending rewrite

Lake County’s Board of Supervisors on an unsuccessful 3-2 vote declined to adopt on first reading an ordinance that would have denied incomplete commercial cannabis cultivation permit applications in unincorporated areas while the county updates its cultivation rules.

Supervisor Ozo (Ozo) Owen introduced the ordinance as a temporary measure to prevent new permits from becoming “legal nonconforming” under the current rules while the county finishes a multi‑year rewrite of its cannabis ordinance. Owen told the board she brought the measure because of recurring complaints about water use and odors and because the rewrite has taken “roughly 4 years.” She said she wanted new applications paused until the new regulations are adopted.

The proposal drew detailed questions from fellow supervisors and from Community Development Director Maria Turner about how the policy would interact with the California Permit Streamlining Act. Turner said the department currently has 66 pending commercial cannabis projects, 35 of which are in completeness review; of those 35, she said 14 are in active contact with staff and five are amendments to existing permits. Turner warned that if the ordinance were adopted as drafted the department would notify all 35 applicants that incomplete applications would be denied 30 days after the ordinance’s effective date and that she expected a wave of applicants scrambling to complete filings and a rise in appeals to the planning commission.

County counsel and staff told the board they drafted the ordinance to align with the Permit Streamlining Act and cited several Government Code…