FALLBROOK — Community leaders in Fallbrook are calling on San Diego County officials to pause plans for a cannabis program in unincorporated areas until environmental analysis is updated with more recent data.
In late March, the Fallbrook Planning Group — a 15-member elected advisory board — approved its recommendations and comments on the county’s draft environmental impact report (DEIR) for the proposed Socially Equitable Cannabis Program.
The program, advanced by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors last year, would open the door to allow commercial cannabis operations in the county’s unincorporated areas. It also includes a social equity component aimed at providing opportunities for individuals previously incarcerated under past cannabis laws to participate in the legal market.
While some residents have concerns about the social equity component, the planning group’s comments focused exclusively on environmental concerns.
The DEIR outlines five alternatives, from maintaining the status quo to allowing varying levels of commercial cultivation, including outdoor and mixed-light grows with buffer zones between operations and sensitive land uses like schools, parks and homes:
- Alternative 1 is the “no project” option, which would retain current cannabis regulations. Currently, only five existing commercial cannabis facilities in the unincorporated county areas near Escondido, Ramona and El Cajon are allowed to continue operating.
- Alternative 2 is the “proposed project” option, which would use state regulations for buffers, including a 600-foot buffer from certain state-defined sensitive uses like schools, daycares and youth centers, and also allow both indoor and outdoor grow operations.
- Alternative 3 would implement expanded county regulations, bumping up the buffer to 1,000 feet from sensitive uses. Under this option, these would also include regional parks, local parks, public trails, recreation facilities, preserves with visitor areas, religious assemblies, childcare centers, public libraries, residential care facilities and other cannabis facilities. This option would also ban advertising cannabis on billboards within 1,000 feet of a sensitive use.
- Alternative 4 would only allow mixed-light and indoor grow operations within a building or greenhouse; no outdoor grow operations. This option would also include a 1,000-foot buffer from the expanded sensitive uses list and ban cannabis billboards from within 1,000 feet of those sensitive uses.
- Alternative 5 would allow outdoor grow operations but only on 1 acre of the property’s total canopy area or 25% of the lot size, whichever is less. This option would also implement the 1,000-foot buffer from the expanded sensitive uses and the billboard buffer.
The group ultimately recommended Alternative 1 in the DEIR, the “no project” option, which would keep current regulations in place and prohibit new cannabis businesses from opening.
“Based on current comparative program failures and court rulings in other counties, cities and states,” the group stated, the county should pause and reevaluate the project. “For example, the idea that legal cannabis businesses will help prevent illegal cannabis businesses, appears to be flawed,” the group added in its formal comments.
However, the group acknowledged that no change to current regulations is unlikely, so it also endorsed Alternative 4, which allows only indoor and mixed-light cultivation with expanded 1,000-foot buffers, as the “environmentally superior alternative.”
Eileen Delaney, chairperson of the Fallbrook Planning Group, said the community’s main concerns center on odor, pesticide use, water consumption, drainage, and other environmental impacts that could harm neighboring farms, orchards and wineries.
“For example, it has recently been observed that the odor from cannabis can be so strong that it can permeate the skin of the grapes being grown close by and alter their flavor,” the group stated. “Indoor cultivation would help eliminate these negative impacts.”
Currently, no confirmed scientific evidence shows that cannabis odor can contaminate grapes.
Despite backing indoor cultivation over outdoor grows, Delaney said concerns remain about indoor operations. Delaney and Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce CEO Lila Hargrove — both members of an ad hoc committee that reviewed the DEIR — agreed that the county’s report contains outdated data.
“There’s now six or seven years of data from areas that have allowed cannabis programs not included in the report,” Delaney said.
According to the group’s written comments: “Data from other municipalities that have had cannabis programs for several years, which was not included in this DEIR, as well as new data that is just being discovered, shows that odors, pesticides, water, drainage and other factors from outdoor cultivation have had, and continue to have substantially negative environmental effects. These effects threaten the health and safety of residents, especially growing children.”
The group also raised concerns about cultivation being allowed on agriculturally zoned A70 and A71 lands, which often border residential areas in the unincorporated county.
Residents also worry about cannabis events and consumption lounges leading to more impaired driving on rural roads.
“We already have enough problems with drunk drivers,” Delaney said.
Dispensaries, which are subject to tighter regulations, were not as much of a concern, she noted.
MJ Direct operates two of the five currently legal cannabis dispensaries in the county’s unincorporated areas — one north of Escondido and another in El Cajon.
Local groups, including the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Backcountry Coalition — a network of chambers from Valley Center, Julian, Ramona, Borrego Springs, Alpine, and Mountain Empire — sent a letter opposing the project in its current form.
“As a chamber, we’re pro-business, but how this affects the community in the long term is what we’re worried about,” Hargrove said.
Hargrove also questioned how cannabis tax revenue would be allocated. Revenue generated through the program would go to the county’s general fund, which may be used in incorporated cities and unincorporated areas.
The Fallbrook Planning Group also included recommendations on operation hours, setbacks and other regulatory controls in its formal comments.
The 60-day comment period for the draft environmental impact report closed March 31. All feedback will be reviewed as the county prepares the final environmental report, which is expected by the end of the year.
The program will then go before the county Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors for final consideration.
