Title
Public hearing to consider adoption of a Mitigated Negative Declaration and Mitigation Monitoring and Report Plan for multiple pending applications requesting entitlements to cultivate and process cannabis located on 45 sites within the Salinas Valley in the unincorporated areas of Monterey County. [REF150048 Multi-site Cannabis Cultivation Environmental Review]
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors adopt a resolution:
a. Adopting the Mitigated Negative Declaration for Multiple Cannabis Cultivation Facilities in Unincorporated Monterey County;
b. Adopting a Mitigation Monitoring and Report Plan; and
c. Accepting a checklist to be used with each individual permit application that will rely on the MND to ensure that the potential environmental impacts of the individual applications were addressed by the analysis in the IS/MND.
SUMMARY
A draft initial study (IS) was prepared and submitted by multiple parties from the cannabis industry applicants that analyzes potential impacts of 45 sites totaling 9,106,981 square feet of cultivation building area. Staff reviewed the document for compliance with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and made edits so that what is being presented to the Board of Supervisors reflects the County's independent judgement.
The purpose of this IS/ Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) (Attachment B) is to help facilitate processing land use permits for multiple cannabis cultivation sites. Sites evaluated under this MND will be able to rely on this IS/MND to the extent that the permits are consistent with the analysis and assumptions contained in the IS/MND. Some cannabis operations were allowed to begin ahead of receiving their land use entitlements, so this analysis considers conditions prior to the cannabis industry, as best it can. Cannabis operations are required to locate where there were pre-existing buildings/operations. For example, greenhouses for the cut flower industry that i...
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