Today’s Fact: 14 Days Until Hemp Meeting on Monday, January 6th
Day 14. The General Plan includes the category “Residential Land Uses” (few if any urban services but access to county roads) and consists of 75,588 acres or 7.8% of the total county . Slightly more than half of these residential lands are zoned Agriculture and Residential (AR) with the remainder designated Rural Residential (RR). According to the Hemp Draft, AR zoning “allows … agriculture, but the primary use remains residential”. Given the similarity to cannabis and the shared unique incompatibility issues, prohibiting hemp cultivation in AR would avoid conflicts. THC pot is prohibited in AR.
Day 15. State law allows counties to tailor their hemp program to meet the values and societal priorities of their counties. Example: The Monterrey County BOS decided that hemp is just like cannabis and should be managed and permitted the same. Hemp is allowed in either industrial or agricultural zones but not in any residential combined or resources zones. Permits are required, 1,000 foot buffer zones between cultivation and residences is mandatory and there is a limit to the number in their pilot program. Monterrey County wants to keep hemp where it should be grown and avoid conflicts.
Day 16. The California Department of Public Health and the U.S. FDA inform that the use of hemp-derived CBD as a food additive or dietary supplement has not been approved and is not allowed.
Day 17. The “Right to Farm” protection is not inviolate. It only applies to Ag crops grown on Ag land (DA, LIA and LEA), and an operation can be declared a nuisance (per State law) for up to three years after the start of the operation if it was a nuisance at the start.
There is no time restriction on declaring any Ag operation a nuisance at any time if such operation is in the other zones (RR, AR and RRD).
All hemp is cultivation is new. It is our goal to prevent and avoid conflicts.
Day 18. The “Right to Farm” law applies to only AG zones (DA, LIA and LEA). Hemp is a “right to farm”crop, THC pot is not.