Staff Report

The County of Santa Barbara is hosting six virtual community meetings in July to receive feedback and answer questions about the amended Cannabis Business License (Chapter 50) regulating cannabis retail storefront licensing.

On January 14, 2020, the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance amendment to Chapter 50 that established a merit-based criteria scoring system for applicants vying for a cannabis retail storefront license. This ordinance amendment became operational February 13, 2020.

Per the ordinance, the process will commence with community engagement meetings to gather input from the community plan areas where storefront retail is allowed. Chapter 50 (b) limits the number of storefront retail licenses to no more than one in each of six community plan areas. County staff is seeking feedback about the business application criteria (not applicants or specific sites) and neighborhood compatibility for the Neighborhood Compatibility Plan portion of the retail storefront application.

Community engagement meetings had been scheduled to begin in April 2020, but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. To prevent further delay, the County is hosting six virtual community meetings in July with many ways and opportunities for the public to participate and provide feedback. Spanish interpretation will be available.

The meeting schedule and information about how to participate and submit feedback is posted at cannabis.countyofsb.org/retail.sbc. In each of the community meetings, staff from the County Executive Office and Planning & Development will present an overview of the cannabis business licensing and permitting process, followed by an overview of the Community Plan Area (CPA). A video version of the presentation is available on the website prior to the meetings.