ZF #2023-038: Consider a request for a Cannabis Use Permit to allow issuance of a cannabis cultivation license for up to two acres of canopy for ISC Enterprises, Inc., issuance of a processing license and a distribution license, and determine the project falls within the scope of the previously certified Yolo County Cannabis Land Use Ordinance Environmental Impact Report and no further environmental review is required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The project is located on a ±40-acre agriculturally zoned parcel at 38500 County Road 14, approximately 3.3-miles southwest of Knights Landing (APN: 056-190-015). (Applicant: Ian & Sylvia Johnston/Owner: Johnston Family Trust) (Planner: Tracy Gonzalez)

The proposed Cannabis Use Permit, if approved, will contain an extensive set of conditions that will regulate the use of the property to conduct cannabis cultivation, processing, and distribution uses. The allowance of up to two acres of cannabis canopy for ISC Enterprises, Inc. (“ISC Enterprises”), will provide additional business opportunity for the operator to continue to compete in the regulated cannabis industry. The distribution license and processing license will contribute to the growth of the cannabis market in Yolo County by providing services to other cannabis operators that may not have the capacity for such uses. The project, as conditioned, is in compliance with the Countywide General Plan, Cannabis Land Use Ordinance, and Yolo County Code.
 

SUMMARY
The project site is a 40-acre agriculturally zoned parcel, located approximately 3.33 miles southwest of the unincorporated community of Knights Landing. ISC Enterprises has been cultivating cannabis annually under validly issued County and State licenses since 2017, and has maintained State and County licenses to allow up to one-acre of cannabis canopy. ISC Enterprises has continuously cultivated since 2017, except for 2022, when the applicant only stored dried cannabis product from the previous season. Cannabis related uses are located within a 3.4-acre footprint near the center of the project site within a previously disturbed/graveled area used for agriculture. The remaining 36.6 acres are flat and planted in safflower, and not intended for cannabis uses. Structures not used for cannabis uses include an 1,800 square foot (SF) storage building, one residence occupied by the Johnstons, and several outbuildings. The property is served by an existing domestic well (not for irrigation purposes) and a septic system. ISC Enterprises currently holds an agreement with the property owner to the north (APN: 056-160-003) to irrigate the project site via well water. Access to the property is via a 20-foot-wide gravel driveway which extends approximately 1,820 feet from County Road 14 to the south along the western boundary of Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN) 056-190-017, which is also owned by the Johnstons. The surrounding land uses are zoned A-N and are generally agricultural organic grain and row crops to the north, pistachio orchard, alfalfa/grain, and row crops to the east, alfalfa to the south, and grain and row crops to the west.
 

ISC Enterprises is seeking to obtain a cannabis cultivation license for one additional acre of cannabis canopy (for a total of two acres of canopy), and the issuance of a distribution license and a processing license, which would provide additional business opportunity for the operator. The processing license allows the various activities associated with the drying, curing, grading, trimming, rolling, storing, packaging, and labeling of cannabis or non-manufactured cannabis products grown on-site as well as for other licensed cannabis facilities. A distribution license would allow for the procurement, rolling, packaging, labeling, storage, sale, and transport of cannabis products between the site and other licensed facilities. The current cultivation area consists of a 320 SF compost area, four metal shipping containers for storage (1,280 SF total), a 192 SF storage structure to house fertilizer, insecticide, and equipment, a 2,400 SF processing building with employee bathrooms and wash stations, an outdoor cultivation area, and eight temporary hoop houses used for immature plants. The additional one acre of canopy would be located immediately east of the existing outdoor cultivation area. ISC Enterprises proposes to construct a 4,800 SF processing and distribution facility, relocate four existing hoop houses, and construct four additional hoop houses within the previously disturbed/graveled area onsite. Cannabis waste would be composted on-site and/or disposed of in compliance with County and State regulations. As required by the CLUO, the applicant has prepared a security plan for the project site. The operation will maintain adequate utilities, access roads, drainage, and sanitation infrastructure in line with County and State regulations, standards, and specifications. All exterior lighting is required to be full cut-off, shielded, and downward facing to prevent spill over onto other properties, structures, or the night sky.

ISC Enterprises currently employs five full time employees and approximately three seasonally contracted employees from September through November to engage in cultivation activities. At full expansion, ISC Enterprises will employ five additional seasonally contracted employees from September through November to assist with harvest and processing activities. ISC Enterprises anticipates six daily trips during the off-season and twelve daily trips during peak-season. Post expansion, ISC Enterprises expects to generate a total of three large truck deliveries and loadings per year.

The project site was previously designated as FEMA Zone A, an area with a one percent annual chance of flooding, otherwise referred to as a 100-year flood. A FEMA Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) Determination was issued on July 27, 2018, to remove the property from the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) located at 38500 County Road 14 (APN: 056-190-015), as well as from the National Flood Insurance Program (NCIP) map. Any proposed construction as a result of the project will not be subject to the County’s Floodplain Ordinance.
 

ANALYSIS
The proposed project has been reviewed for consistency with the Countywide General Plan and the County Zoning Regulations, including the Cannabis Land Use Ordinance (CLUO). The proposal is also consistent with the CLUO Environmental Impact Report, and no further environmental review is required under the California Environmental Quality Act. As explained below, the project, as conditioned, is consistent with all applicable plans, policies, and regulations.

General Plan and Zoning Consistency
The project, as conditioned, is consistent with the Countywide General Plan. The requested use is proposed on property designated as Agriculture (AG) in the Countywide General Plan. Cannabis cultivation which includes activities involving the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, during, grading, storing, and trimming of cannabis grown on site are called out as agricultural activities under the AG land use designation (Policy LU-1.1, and Table LU-4). Further, Policy AG-3.22 reads:
 

The project furthers policies in the Countywide General Plan that seek to promote a healthy and competitive farm economy to expand the County’s agricultural base, including Policy AG-3.2, which encourages processing on agricultural land subject to appropriate design review and development standards, and Policy AG-3.12 that promotes marketplace-initiated conversion from lower to higher value-added crops and agricultural commodities. The project, when considered as a component of the County’s cannabis industry as a whole, furthers Policy AG-5.1 which promotes markets for locally and regionally grown and/or prepared food and other products and services.

The subject property is zoned Agricultural Intensive (A-N). Pursuant to Article 3, of Chapter 2, of Title 8 of the Yolo County Code, cannabis cultivation, processing, and distribution are allowed in the A-N zone upon issuance of a Cannabis Use Permit. The project meets the development requirements and setbacks prescribed for the A-N zone.

CLUO Consistency
As part of the application review process, staff conducted a thorough review of the project against the applicable provisions of the CLUO. The project, as conditioned, is determined to be in compliance with the CLUO. The applicable provisions of the CLUO are included as conditions of approval (Attachment E). The operators are required to submit an annual report on July 1 of each year starting the first July in the year after permit issuance documenting compliance with the Cannabis Use Permit requirements.

Project Design and Operation
As described above, the project involves the expansion of cannabis cultivation canopy from one acre to two acres for ISC Enterprises, utilizing temporary hoop houses for immature plants and outdoor cannabis cultivation methods. The project site is served by PG&E and the project is conditioned to achieve Valley Clean Energy ultra-green or equivalent standard (100 percent renewable and 100 percent carbon-free) within six months of project approval. The project is also conditioned to require the use of LED lighting or equivalent or more efficient technology. Indoor lighting is required to be fully controlled so that minimal or no light escapes. Outdoor lighting is required to be full cut-off, shielded, and downward facing so it does not spill over onto other properties, structures, or the night sky.

The CLUO addresses odor impacts through limiting the location of cannabis uses, and establishing buffers for outdoor cannabis uses, odor control requirements, and enforcement procedures. However, while these measures may minimize the likelihood of nuisance odors, the potential for odors to occur remains and was considered a significant and unavoidable impact in the CLUO EIR. The applicant submitted an odor control plan prepared by Yorke Engineering, LLC, that describes the odor emitting activities and the administrative and passive controls to reduce and control odors to the greatest extent possible. If odor nuisances are verified pursuant to the enforcement procedure set forth in the CLUO, the operator may employ active controls, such as odor neutralizers for the outdoor canopy and carbon filtration systems for the processing building, as well as passive controls such as additional vegetation barriers, relocation of the outdoor grow area, or different plant strains to minimize the potential for nuisances. The odor control plan identified that typical winds are expected to blow mainly from the north-northwest and south-southeast, parallel with the mountain range to the west. Three residential dwellings were identified southeast, and one residential dwelling was identified south (owned by the Johnstons) of the facility that are within 2,000 feet and in the primary downwind direction.

Although the site is served by a domestic well (for non-irrigation purposes) and a septic system, ISC Enterprises currently holds an agreement with the property owner to the north (APN: 056-160-003) to irrigate the project site via well water. ISC Enterprises currently holds a Well Permit (24-027W) from the County that would allow on-site drilling near the southern border of the project site for what will be the future water source for cannabis operations. The applicant estimates that approximately 4.2 acre-feet of water per year would be used upon expansion of the project for a total of two acres of canopy. The CLUO EIR analyzed groundwater that would be used for cannabis crops and compared that to average groundwater use for other non-cannabis crops. The analysis demonstrated that the amount of groundwater used for cannabis activities under each of the CEQA Alternatives would be similar to the amount used for other crops likely to be grown on the property in the absence of contemplated cannabis uses. The high end of the analysis estimated the cumulative use of all cannabis operations in the County could reach 424-acre feet per year, which equates to approximately the average groundwater used by an orchard of about 131 acres.
 

Site Setting
The project site is located in an agriculturally zoned area approximately 3.3 miles southwest of the unincorporated community of Knights Landing. The cannabis activities currently occupy approximately 3.4 acres of the site, and the remaining 36.6 acres are in active agricultural production. The project site is generally flat and surrounding land uses are generally agricultural; organic grain and row crops to the north, pistachio orchard, alfalfa/grain, and row crops to the east, alfalfa to the south, and grain and row crops to the west.

The cultivation area is located near the center of the property and the proposed outdoor expansion area will be located immediately east of the existing outdoor cultivation area. The property does not have any screening or fencing, as the property is bordered by vegetative ditches and the outdoor cannabis uses are not visible from the nearest public right-of-way (County Road 14), which is more than 1,791 feet to the south. The operator has prepared a security plan and will implement measures to secure the property, such as security cameras, motion detectors, alarms, and administrative controls. The operator also is required to provide property owners within 1,000 feet of the property line with an operable method of communication with a local or on-site responsible party having prompt access to the site, operations, and activities. This requirement facilitates communication between neighbors related to conditions at the site and operation of the activities.

Buffers and Setbacks
All existing structures used for cannabis activities, including the existing 2,400 SF processing facility, hoop houses, shipping containers, and storage structure, meet the setback requirements for the A-N zone. Building setbacks for new structures shown on the site plan (i.e., 4,800 SF processing and distribution building, four relocated hoop houses, and four new hoop houses) in Attachment B, meet the setback requirements for new structures in the A-N zone and will be reviewed upon submission of building permit application(s).

The proposed project currently meets the buffer requirements from sensitive land uses as set forth in the CLUO. For existing licensees outside the Capay Valley, the required buffer requirement for outdoor cannabis uses from offsite individual legal residences in non-residential zones is 600 feet, measured from the closest point of any outdoor area containing cannabis. ISC Enterprises currently meets, and will continue to maintain, all CLUO buffer requirements from sensitive land uses. The nearest agricultural homesite (to the east) is approximately 1,600 feet from the proposed outdoor cultivation area, and the nearest residential homesite within the unincorporated communities of Yolo and Knights Landing are more than three miles to the south and east, respectively. The applicable provisions of the CLUO are included as conditions of approval.

Pursuant to Policy CO-2.22 of the Yolo County General Plan, and as codified in the CLUO and included in the Conditions of Approval, no new development requiring a building permit, including grading activities, shall be located within 100-feet of waterbodies or watercourses. The project is in compliance with this requirement as the proposed project is more than one mile away from the nearest waterbody or watercourse (Colusa Basin Drainage Canal) to the north.

Compliance History
The Department of Community Services, Cannabis Unit, maintains compliance and complaint history dating back to 2019 when the cannabis program moved from the Agriculture Department to the Department of Community Services. The operator has not received a Notice of Violation from the Cannabis Unit, nor have any nuisance complaints been lodged against the operator with the Cannabis Unit.

Staff coordinated with the County Department of Financial Services to produce a history of cannabis and property tax payments for the site, which verified that ISC Enterprises and the property owner, are up-to-date on their property taxes and cannabis taxes.

CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA) REVIEW
The Cannabis Land Use Ordinance Environmental Impact Report (CLUO EIR) was prepared as a programmatic EIR for adoption of the CLUO and to support streamlined review of individual permit applications pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Sections 15168, 15162, and 15183. If the County finds that an individual project is within the scope of the CLUO EIR, its environmental impacts are adequately addressed in the CLUO EIR, and applicable mitigation measures are applied to the project, then no further environmental review is required. Staff prepared a project-specific CLUO Program EIR Checklist / Project Initial Study (Attachment C) that examines the conclusions reached in the CLUO EIR for each relevant CEQA impact category identified in the CLUO EIR and Appendix G of the CEQA Guidelines. Staff determined that the proposed project activities are within the scope of the CLUO EIR, and that no additional environmental review is required.
 

SUMMARY OF PUBLIC CORRESPONDENCE
A Request for Comments was distributed to reviewing agencies on July 17, 2024. Comments received from reviewing agencies were incorporated into the Conditions of Approval (Attachment E) where applicable. A Courtesy Notice was also distributed on July 17, 2024, to the Planning Division’s interested parties list and mailed to property owners within 1,000 feet of the property boundary of the subject parcel. The Courtesy Notice summarized the existing and proposed operations as provided in the application materials. Staff received one response from a member of the public pointing out minor typo in the Courtesy Notice regarding the direction of the project site from Knights Landing and also stating that the project appears to be consistent with the County’s General Plan requirements and current ordinances. Staff also received a comment letter from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation (“Tribe”) dated August 30, 2024, stating that the project is not within a Cultural Resource or Tribal Trust land buffer and that they have no objections to the project as proposed with the inclusion of standard treatment protocols for inadvertent finds of tribal cultural resources.

The project site is located within the boundary of the Yolo-Zamora Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) comment area; however, the Yolo-Zamora CAC is not an active committee due to lack of membership, and therefore did not convene to discuss and make a recommendation on the project.

The Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office commented on July 23, 2024, that there are no known compatibility issues, as cannabis has largely been grown near the center of the project site since 2017. In addition, the Agricultural Commission found no compatibility concerns with the adjacent properties or crops, or concerns with agricultural maintenance or screening/fencing issues. The Agricultural Commissioner did acknowledge that the applicant will have to obtain an Operator ID for pesticide use issued by the Agricultural Commission prior to any application of pesticides. ISC Enterprises would also be responsible for all employees who apply pesticides, requiring that employees must hold a current Private Application Certificate (PAC) or Qualified Applicator License (QAL) (which was previously acquired but had expired in December of 2022), follow all applicable pesticide laws and regulations, and all pesticide use must be reported to the Agricultural Department by the 10th of the following month that the application took place.

A public hearing notice was mailed to property owners within 1,000 feet on January 31, 2025, and published in the Davis Enterprise on February 2, 2025.

Any person who is dissatisfied with the decisions of this Planning Commission may appeal to the Board of Supervisors by filing a notice of appeal with the Clerk of the Board within fifteen (15) days from the date of the action. A Planning Commission Appeal Form and appeal fee immediately payable to “County of Yolo” must be submitted at the time of filing. The Board of Supervisors may sustain, modify or overrule this decision. The Planning Commission Appeal Form can be accessed at the following link: https://www.yolocounty.org/government/board-of-supervisors/clerk-of-the-board/planning-commission-appeal