WILLITS, CA., 5/2/25 — An environmental nonprofit has filed a lawsuit challenging an action by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors earlier this month to allow cannabis growers to expand their grows to 20,000 square feet of commercial cannabis on a single parcel, provided they hold the proper cultivation license.
According to the Willits Environmental Center, a nonprofit that advocates for local environmental protection, the county’s interpretation of a county cannabis ordinance “turns seven years of understanding and implementation of the cannabis ordinance on its head.”
The county ordinance restricts growers to 10,000 square feet of commercial cultivation per parcel, provided they hold a cannabis cultivation business license, or CCBL.
Growers are allowed to hold two types of CCBLs and can trade one license for another if they submit a completed application and pay the required fees. Because of the confusion surrounding the ordinance, cultivators with a nursery license, for example, believed they would be allowed to trade the nursery license for a cultivation license and end up with two 10,000-square-foot growing areas or 20,000 square feet. The vote at the April 8 meeting allowed that interpretation of the ordinance to go forward.
According to Ellen Drell, a founder of the Willits Environmental Center, the county did not solicit public feedback before moving forward with the new interpretation of the ordinance. She said more public meetings are needed before increasing the amount of commercial cannabis that can be grown.
“If we’re supposedly an open democratic process, it requires the supervisors to hold public hearings, to let people know and be heard,” Drell said in an interview. “We hope to restore respect for the rule of law. The supervisors can amend the ordinance, but they have to do it properly.”
Drell added that the board’s decision to allow growers to cultivate up to 20,000 square feet of commercial cannabis did not undergo an environmental review and could strain local natural resources. She said this interpretation of the proposal should have gone through a review required under the California Environmental Quality Act.
“If you have enough water for 10,000 square feet and it’s working with your neighbors, what happens if that’s doubled?” she said. “If there’s any possibility that an ordinance or project could negatively affect people or the environment, decision-makers are required to consider those impacts.”
In a press release, the center said it is supported by other local groups that oppose the new interpretation, including the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council and the Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council.
For Mendocino County cannabis entrepreneur Don Graham, known locally as Farmer Don, allowing larger commercial cannabis grows will help local cultivators compete in an industry increasingly dominated by large-scale companies.
“Doing an extra 10,000 square feet, bringing the total to 20,000, means you can start to compete with companies like Glass House,” Graham said in an interview, referring to one of the largest cannabis brands in the industry. “Allowing that kind of expansion not only lets growers diversify their strains, but it also gives them room to take creative risks. A lot of cultivators out here are passionate … they want to experiment. If you only have 10,000 square feet, it’s a big gamble. If a strain doesn’t work, you’ve just lost a big chunk of your crop.”
District 1 Supervisor John Haschak, who represents the region with the highest number of growers in the county, said even cannabis cultivators are divided on how much commercial cannabis should be allowed on a single parcel.
“There are more than two sides. The cannabis community has been really split on this issue,” Haschak said in an interview. “Some people really believe the original intent was to keep cultivation limited to 10,000 square feet, and that Mendocino County should market itself as a niche cannabis region focused on high-quality product. But there are others who want to expand and see this as an opportunity to do that.”
Haschak, one of two supervisors who opposed the interpretation of the ordinance allowing 20,000 square feet of commercial cannabis cultivation, said the county needs to explore other options before making a decision that will affect the entire community.
“I think that there’s other ways we can make the industry survive and thrive,” he said. “We need to explore all those things … to see what people really need.”
The Mendocino Voice reached out to the county’s executive office for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The Drell trust fund at it again. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Please explain about this Drell trust fund?
There is nothing wrong with people choosing to spend their money on legal challenges when our local government (allegedly) is up to their usual shenanigans rather than following proper procedure. If we want to have nice things, our government officials should proceed as they are supposed to proceed. Not doing that ends up wasting time and lots of money. I blame the Supes and County CEO for these legal messes.
The spin on this continues to claim the ordinance was “reinterpreted”. The reality is we had seven or so years of incompetent cannabis program directors who did not read the ordinances. Then we got Steve Dunicliff as interim director and he actually read the ordinances and finally brought clarity to this issue. Under certain zoning situations and taking into consideration the entirety of the law there are some instances where two cultivation permits, of differing types, are allowed. Nothing in the law has been changed but to eliminate this “loophole” if you want to call it that, the law would have to be changed.
Disagree. If cultivation is limited to 10,000 feet per parcel then that is the explicit cap. Just because someone else could swap out their nursery permit for a cultivation permit (provided they didn’t already have up to 10,000 square feet of cultivation on the same parcel, doesn’t mean someone can use this creative work-around–the literal definition of loophole–to get around a hard cap. Nursery uses and cultivation uses are different with cultivation using more water and chemicals than little starts. This is a real concern and easily addressed if the County just did a supplemental CEQA review of the change in intensity but apparently they were lazy and didn’t do that or didn’t think it was significant enough of an increase to merit supplemental review. We have courts to resolve these types of interpretive disputes.
Misplaced anger. Retired boomers can’t address the real problem, the 9 out of 10 unlicensed farms that they have no control over beyond an anonymous rant to code enforcement, so they put all their resources into punishing the few good actors already drowning under a regulatory nightmare and the only economic lifeline this poor rural county really has. It’s ironic that the few of us she seeks to punish should actually be rewarded for going above and beyond what is reasonable for environmental consideration and at very great expense. Irony won’t save us though and Ellen will continue to drive even more growers to the black market making the matters worse. The 1/4 acre county ordinance is an unfair artifact of being too soon codify cannabis in the county, we should have waited and mirrored the state rules. Everyone shot themselves in the foot and we still bicker and litigate about being handi-capped to less than a quarter of the state law when other counties license stack to 50 acres,… some think that more regulations are what will help the few proud licensed cannabis farmers left in the county and I’m here to say you’re wrong.
This is the attitude of the wealthy. This was evident in 2000 with the vote on measure G and the 25 plant limit. I know farmers that left Mendocino for the Inland Empire and the local Sheriff gave them his card and personal number. Said we are glad to have you here and please tell your freinds. Now they own all kinds of businesses and employ many people. Mendocino has a plan, to raise all county fees and make sure property assessment is up to date. Their answer is more taxes and fees and the wealthy are willing to pay it. Mark my words, I am working on a project that will bring jobs and opportunities to Mendocino County and the county and the citizens will take issue and the project involves farming. We import ten times the produce as we consume in this county. We will see soon enough that cannabis isn’t the entire issue, farming is what they have an issue with, even though we are a right to farm county. I have sat in many of meeting with the community and many in our community are disconnected from having to work for a living or where their food comes from. Don’t even get me started on the quality if the food. According to our county budget we do not have enough wealthy people to create a financially functional society in this county. So what is their plan, to stop anyone who is productive.
There is no Willits Environmental Center. It doesn’t exist. It’s just a tax shelter for rich people that’s named like it’s an environmental center. The property sold. The website is inactive.They do no environmental work at all. It’s a lobbying group old of old wealthy folks who don’t like weed. Spoiled old rich folks who have nothing to do. They could actually follow the law and do get out the vote outreach like their tax exempt status encourages but they’re just not going to do that. Democratic values are dead. Only NIMBYism and sad loveless days of pain crying over the threat of legal regulated weed remain. They have Haschak by the danglers. It’s just pathetic and sad how this county operates. It’s all “I’ve got mine now you can’t have yours.”
Grow food…not drugs. Waste of water & resources. Food is so high priced now. We pay the money to Mexico & Canada. Canned goods from China. Grapes from Brazil. It’s not Rocket Science. Stop old narrow minded drug enabling… & start feeding the world. Visionaries see opportunity, when the past fails. Already have irrigation & workers. Cannary. Truck it to Bay Area. That’s not far. Butcher beef, with humane treatment of animals during life. Fish farms. Trout & water storage. Vermont has self substainable towns that use local grown products at stores. I don’t understand why only two crops exist in this area?? Both are becoming not viable. It’s like brains addicted to narrow thinking. Whole world of opportunity exist.
expanding means double the water use. Seems that’s stealing from the neighbors. Then exporting the water out in a different form. Still stealing from the neighbors.
State permits require adequate supply and adequate storage of water. Nobody is stealing. People who can’t be bothered to understand the rules surrounding legal cannabis are the real problem. Read the rules.