Committee considers extending Monterey County outdoor cannabis pilot as growers seek setback and drying flexibility

Craig Spencer of the Housing and Community Development Department told the Monterey County Cannabis Committee that the county’s outdoor commercial cannabis cultivation pilot — which covers Big Sur, Carmel Valley and Kishawa — was adopted in 2019, later extended and now expires in June 2027. He said three applicants have applied under the pilot but none have been approved to date.

“It is set to expire in June 2027, which is less than a year from now,” Craig Spencer said, noting the pilot’s limited practical testing value if no operations have actually been approved. Growers who have engaged with staff provided three main pieces of feedback: allow relocation of historical growth sites, reduce the required setback from the nearest off-site structure (the code was amended once from 500 to 250 feet and some growers requested roughly 150 feet), and permit temporary structures such as shipping containers or tents for post-harvest drying and curing.

Supervisors pressed staff on both the policy choices and staff capacity to rewrite the ordinance. The Chair said changing the ordinance would require staff time and budget and asked whether investment in reworking the code would produce enough new applicants to make the program self-sustaining. Spencer recommended a pragmatic two-step approach: extend the pilot’s sunset date by two years as a minimal-effort action to preserve options, and return the following year with a prioritized ordinance package for more substantive changes.

Michelle House, the county’s cannabis program manager, said she has capacity to help interested growers navigate permitting and suggested cooperative approaches — for example, groups of growers finding properties that avoid CEQA and setback complications — could make projects more feasible. Public commenters representing growers urged the board not to let the work already done go to waste and warned that the lack of provisional licensing and long coastal land-use permitting timelines are major barriers to investment.

The committee signaled support for extending the sunset date to buy time for a substantive ordinance revision, with supervisors offering different views on final extension length (staff recommended two years; one supervisor suggested five years to provide investor certainty). No formal ordinance change was adopted at the meeting; staff were directed to return with a timeline and recommendations.