SLO County officials change cannabis regulations — 'a big relief,' owner says

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday eliminated a five-year permit renewal requirement for cannabis cultivation.

The 5-to-0 vote will now make it easier for county growers to continue to operate.

County officials held a hearing on proposed amendments for the land use and coastal zone use ordinance that would modify regulations for cannabis cultivation permits and change the hours for cannabis deliveries in the county.

The regulations previously required applicants to renew their permits every five years.

“When the County of San Luis Obispo first started its cannabis regulations they made them quite onerous and one of the items was to renew your permit for your cultivation every five years,” said Dawn Ortiz-Legg, County of San Luis Obispo District 3 Supervisor.

According to county officials, permits for cannabis cultivation expired five years from the approval date it was issued.

Applicants could renew their permit but the process can be long and expensive.

“We had a situation where we were permitting a [cannabis] cultivation and they would get their permit but then by the time they got their other building permits and everything, possibly a year or two years could go by, and then their five-year timeline was still ticking,” said Ortiz-Legg.

Austen Conella, the owner of SLOCAL Roots in San Luis Obispo County, says the permit application was a long process.

“Our land use process was almost three years long to get that original approval and then there was another year, a year and a half of build-up before we were actually able to operate,” said Austen Connella, SLOCAL Roots Owner and CEO. “If we would have to go back through that land use process again it could have been another one- to two-year process.”

Cannabis cultivators get inspected quarterly by officials throughout the year.

“We were actually coming up on our five-year renewal this month, so this amendment to the ordinance came just in the nick of time so this is a big relief.”

County officials also extended the hours for cannabis deliveries in unincorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County, which was previously running between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

However, the current state regulations allow for cannabis deliveries between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and county officials agreed and passed this regulation as other counties surrounding San Luis Obispo County have this rule in place.

“We were losing business to those other counties, so now we are all on the same level from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for cannabis delivery,” said Ortiz-Legg.