Retail Storefronts Coming to Santa Barbara County
July 3, 2020
by Tiffany Carrari
On July 1, Santa Barbara County hosted its first of six community meetings being held to receive feedback and questions about the amended Cannabis Business License Ordinance (Chapter 50) regulating cannabis retail storefront licensing. Chapter 50 limits the number of retail storefronts to one (1) in each of the following six (6) community plan areas: Isla Vista, Santa Ynez Valley, Toro Canyon/Summerland, Orcutt, Eastern Goleta Valley and Los Alamos.
To help you identify potential locations, the County’s Cannabis Permitting and Zoning Map is linked here. Use the Layer List in the upper right-hand corner to identify parcels in zones allowing cannabis storefront retail.
The County had originally adopted a system by which cannabis retail storefront licenses would be awarded to qualified applicants using a lottery-based system. But the Board of Supervisors made an about-face at the beginning of this year when they amended the process to establish a merit-based scoring system instead.
Santa Barbara County’s onboarding of legal cannabis has not been without struggle. Last year, anti-cannabis din grew to such a level that the 2019-20 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury investigated concerns over the influence of the cannabis industry on the creation of the County’s ordinances. The grand jury report represents the ongoing tug-of-war between diametric lobby efforts by the cannabis industry and anti-cannabis special interest groups including Santa Barbara County war-on-drug holdover NIMBYs and law enforcement, conventional farming and wine industry competitors. You can read the grand jury report here.
Adding to the growing furor among anti-cannabis interests in Santa Barbara County, neighboring San Luis Obispo County has been plagued by allegations of corruption and “bad actor” cannabis folk. Some of these lambasted characters already operate in Santa Barbara County and others have shown public interest in obtaining retail storefronts. We expect that additional concerted efforts will be made to further delegitimize and denigrate the cannabis industry in Santa Barbara County and we urge industry stakeholders to engage professional advocates like us to join the fight.
If you are interested in winning one of the six retail storefront licenses, we recommend getting involved now while the County is hosting community meetings and asking for feedback.
You can find the Virtual Community Meeting Schedule and other information about submitting comments for the County’s consideration here.
If you are a property owner, cannabis operator, or cannabis business license applicant (retail storefront or otherwise) and want to know more about how The Law Offices of Omar Figueroa can help you succeed in Santa Barbara County, please reach out!
This information is provided as a public educational service and is not intended as legal advice. For specific questions regarding Santa Barbara County retail storefronts, advocacy or other topics related to cannabis or hemp, please contact the Law Offices of Omar Figueroa at info@omarfigueroa.com or 707-829-0215 to schedule a confidential legal consultation.