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Cannabis division outlines plan to consolidate licensing ordinances, recommends parallel zoning work
Summary
Cannabis Division Director Drew Plavati briefed the board on aligning county cannabis licensing with standard land-use permits, recommended consolidating and clarifying cannabis ordinances now while reserving zoning-location decisions for the broader chapter 17 update, and briefed supervisors on overlay-zone and program-enrollment concepts.
Drew Plavati, director of Trinity County’s Cannabis Division, told the Board of Supervisors on June 4 that the county should consolidate and clarify its existing cannabis licensing ordinances now, while leaving the question of where cannabis uses are allowed (rezoning and general plan redesignations) to the broader zoning code update process.
Plavati said 91 percent of public comments received during the general plan process related to cannabis, mostly requests to redesignate or rezone parcels. He described two technical tracks: 1) consolidating terminology and requirements in the county’s cannabis ordinances so licensing and enforcement are consistent across permit holders; and 2) handling zoning designations and overlay zones as part of the chapter 17 zoning-code rewrite and related general-plan decisions.
Plavati described a "dual-track" approach: finalize consolidated cannabis ordinance text that clarifies definitions, performance standards, micro-business rules and program-enrollment reporting requirements, while pursuing the zoning question in parallel. "The land use entitlement...is undoubtedly a discretionary process," he said, recommending director's use permits (DUPs) and conditional-use permits (CUPs) as the land-use vehicles while the county moves licensing toward program enrollment (a maintenance/oversight mechanism similar to water-board enrollment).
Board reaction and direction: Supervisors expressed general support for consolidating ordinances now while reserving where-cannabis-is-allowed decisions for the zoning update. County counsel and the CAO recommended further public input before finalizing changes and asked staff to mark which ordinance items are tightly tied to zoning so they can be wrapped into the zoning-code project.
Key technical points Plavati raised: - Consider overlay zones (community-specific rules) for places such as Post Mountain or Junction City that want different rules than elsewhere; - Consider parcel-size / license-size correlations (minimum acreage for larger cultivation licenses, setbacks, odor easements); - Move the administrative process for compliance from paperwork-heavy annual completeness reviews toward more on-site compliance checks if a business-license or program-enrollment approach reduces redundant administrative tasks.
Plavati recommended staff bring a consolidated draft ordinance to the planning commission for review and to produce a companion document highlighting items that must wait for zoning decisions.
Ending: The board gave staff consensus direction to proceed with consolidation work and to keep zoning-location choices for the chapter 17 rewrite; staff will produce draft consolidated ordinance language and a map of topics that require zoning decisions for later integration.
