Indoor cannabis farm approved at tense SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SLO County Board denied appeal, allowing Eden’s Dream cannabis project to proceed.
- Opponents cited water use, odor, crime risks; project claims net water reduction.
- Board emphasized policy adherence over personal views amid repeated disruptions.
Tensions were high at the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, as the board decided the fate of a proposed indoor cannabis farm on a 100-acre plot in rural Templeton.
The Eden’s Dream cannabis project, which has been in the works since 2018, has long been opposed by a group of neighboring residents who filed an appeal to block its progression.
After nearly two hours of deliberations, complete with multiple crowd disruptions and a private confrontation between the appellant and the project applicant, the board voted to deny the appeal and move the cannabis farm along to the next step in the permitting process.
One attendee was threatened with removal from the meeting for public disruption, prompting the board to remind the room of the importance of its meeting rules and procedures.
With its previously approved building permits upheld by the board, the cannabis farm may be able to break ground on construction soon, but the fight to stop the project is not over for the neighborhood group.
“Our objective is to stop this Eden’s Dream,” Templeton resident Robert Ballo said at Tuesday’s meeting, speaking on behalf of the appellant group. “Our objective is to stop other projects like this. Our objective is to write new ordinances that get rid of pot in North County and in San Luis Obispo County.”
For the Eden family and Elizabeth Ross, the owners of the cannabis business, Tuesday’s win was still one step closer to making that dream into a reality.
“We’ve been doing this since 2018 and a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into it,” project planner and consultant Ian McCarville told The Tribune. “Today’s kind of one of those big milestones forward, (but) we’re not at the weeds yet.”
Templeton cannabis farm approved, with a few changes
Located on a 100-acre property at 4339 South El Pomar Road, Eden’s Dream cannabis project would demolish a barn on the property and add a 35,500-square foot greenhouse for an indoor cannabis nursery and production facility in its place, all enclosed by a security fence. There are already orchards and vineyards on the farm property.
The agricultural-zoned land is tucked into a canyon bordered by steep inclines and olive trees, creating natural barriers between the farm and its surroundings.
Those surroundings include other businesses and agricultural operations, such as the Chicago Grade landfill, wineries and event centers, but also a rural residential neighborhood.
Eden’s Dream, which was originally introduced in 2018 as a dual indoor-outdoor operation, has since reduced in scope to be indoors-only due to public pushback by the neighbors.
The group of residents opposing the project rallied behind the name Save Our Templeton Neighborhoods. Their main concerns include the sound, odor and water use impacts of the project, as well as increase in potential criminal activity and the project’s general incompatibility with their neighborhood’s quality of life.
Both teams had ten minutes to present their arguments for or against the project at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Ballo’s presentation on behalf of the neighborhood group started with a video presenting the “myths” and “facts” of the project impacts, claiming the farm would worsen the local economy, use four times more water than anticipated from North County’s scarce resources and has failed to comply with state environmental laws.
“Don’t let Eden’s Dream become our nightmare,” the video said.
The appeal presentation was followed by Eden’s Dream’s ten-minute response, during which the project planner addressed these concerns one by one.
Water usage was the largest concern of most appellants and people who spoke at public comment.
The farm pumps solely from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, which is considered critically overdrawn by state water entities. Many who spoke expressed concern that the basin doesn’t have the capacity to support the growth of a water-intensive crop like cannabis.
“In California’s current drought climate, 13 privately-owned domestic wells have gone dry within less than one mile of Eden’s Dream property,” Ballo said at the meeting. “We just don’t have the water to support this.”
However, McCarville made clear that the project would actually improve the state of the basin.
Eden’s Dream is projected to use 3.7 acre-feet of water — over a million gallons — per year, but it is required to offset this anticipated water use at a 2:1 ratio.
The property is currently host to an irrigated olive tree orchard and wine vineyard. By removing close to six acres of the vineyard, water use will reduce by 7.4 acre-feet per year — meaning the net water use will cut in half, ultimately reducing the burden on the basin.
The farm also expects to reclaim 23% of its greenhouse water through recycling from various mechanical systems and using water-efficient plumbing fixtures.
Another of the appellant group’s concerns was whether the odor-mitigating technology Eden’s Dream planned to use would be good enough to clean air that might escape the greenhouse.
McCarville shared on Tuesday that the farm would use Byers MT-6 system — or an equal to or better than — system. He noted this system does not use any masking agents or mist like some other carbon filtration technologies, which reduce effectiveness in odor control and air quality, and removes, on average, 93.9% of cannabis odors in a single pass through.
As for energy use, Eden’s Dream committed to participating in the Central Coast Community Energy Prime program, which sources 100% renewable, carbon-free electricity in an effort to offset their energy demand before its solar infrastructure is installed.
Another concern was increased criminal activity.
According to the appeal, the SLO County Sheriff’s Office was called to investigate a man trespassing on private property while seemingly looking for the Eden’s Dream Cannabis project on Jan. 14.
McCarville clarified Tuesday that the trespasser was a neighborhood resident who was curious about the project and that no criminal report was ever filed.
Regardless, a security fence will border the farm’s indoor facilities.
McCarville said that prior to the proposal, the project underwent several technical surveys, including a water use analysis, groundwater impact studies, noise impact studies, energy use evaluations, odor control assessments and an environmental impact analysis.
During operation, the farm would be subject to regulatory oversight by the Sheriff’s Office Cannabis Compliance Team, which would conduct at least quarterly inspections monitoring water use through on-site meters, energy consumption, noise levels and odor control, he said.
If any regulations are broken — for example, if the project exceeds its water usage cap of 3.7 acre-feet per year — the farm’s permits could be revoked.
Public disruptions and tense conversations at Board of Supervisors meeting
Templeton resident and appellant Murray Powell, who has been disruptive at Board of Supervisor meetings in the past, interrupted public comment multiple times on Tuesday, prompting some discussion of the importance of following the rules and procedures during public meetings.
The first time, he interrupted Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg as she attempted to organize public comment.
According to county policy, anyone named on an appeal may only be allowed to speak during the allotted ten-minute presentation time that came before public comment.
As Ortiz-Legg was removing names of appeal signatories from speaker slips and explaining the proper procedure for public comment and rebuttal, Powell interrupted, encouraging one of the appellants to “get up there.”
The situation almost escalated to his removal.
“Excuse me. Please sit down, Murray,” Ortiz-Legg asked.
“No, I’m not gonna sit down,” Powell responded.
“Then we’ll ask you to be removed, okay? One of the two,” Ortiz-Legg responded.
“Go ahead,” Powell said, cutting her off.
“You just always disrupt,” Ortiz-Legg said. “You always disrupt. We’re trying to keep a process.”
Powell went silent after that and was not removed from the meeting.
He interrupted Ortiz-Legg once again at the end of the public comment period, when she asked for any further comment from non-appellants.
As he walked to the dais, Ortiz-Legg cut him off, saying, “No, not you. No, no, no.”
He was ultimately allowed to speak “as a representative of TAAG,” — the Templeton Area Advisory Group of which he is vice chair. He used his time to reiterate the neighborhood groups concerns over neighborhood compatibility, odor and noise.
Tensions rose again not during the meeting itself, but in a private conversation between Ballo and the business owners of Eden’s Dream after closing statements.
During public comment, Save Our Templeton Neighborhood’s organizer Kristen Gemeny expressed her concern of Ross’s “lack of visibility and engagement with the neighborhood.”
“Community consultants, not Ross herself, have represented the project at meetings and hearings, and that raises doubts about her commitment to minimize your time and impact on neighbors,” Gemeny said.
Ross, meanwhile, was sitting in the audience with her business partners, Mike and Colleen Eden, along with McCarville and the rest of the project management team at the time.
During a break in the meeting, Ballo approached the team and business owners. It quickly became a tense confrontation, ending in the business owners respectfully declining Ballo’s attempts to discuss the project and Ballo implying future legal action.
“We’re gonna to get to know you guys,” Ballo said to McCarville. “I love it. We figured legal should go on for maybe five or six years?”
“What?” McCarville responded.
“I’m just saying, it’s gonna be fun,” Ballo said, then walked away.
Later, during board deliberations, both Powell and Ballo interrupted to ask if the appellants would get another chance to respond. Powell was again told by County Counsel Jon Ansolbehere he was “disrupting.”
Board voted based on fact, not feelings
In deliberations, the board made clear that its vote must be based off facts, figures, law and policy instead of personal support for or against cannabis.
“Seeing that the overall idea that the community, perhaps the majority of the community doesn’t support cannabis, which we heard today from the appellate, isn’t relevant to this proceeding,” Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said.
Supervisor Heather Moreno, who did not support the legalization of cannabis, said she still “cannot make a decision based upon that.”
She also highlighted that some of the appellant’s figures were not representative of the Templeton community, or even San Luis Obispo County.
Save Our Templeton Neighborhoods circulated a petition opposing the project ahead of the hearing, which had over 500 signatures as of Tuesday morning. However, only 109 of those signatures were from Templeton residents, Moreno said.
The other 422 came from not only throughout SLO County, but also throughout California, from Oakland to San Diego, and across 18 different states and countries including Vermont, Georgia and all the way to New Zealand, she said.
“I wanted to be clear that we’re not talking about 521, people right around this area that are signing this petition,” Moreno said. “Again, I can’t go based upon my personal thoughts and feelings on cannabis. It does need to be according to the law and the ordinances on the books.”
Ultimately the board voted unanimously with Supervisor Bruce Gibson absent to deny the appeal and uphold the project’s planning permits, adding details about the farm’s odor, energy and water use mitigation commitments.
“It’s always been about how to responsibly incorporate this into the community and into the neighborhood,” McCarville told The Tribune after the meeting. “A lot of these significant revisions we’ve made have been in part due to the comments we’ve received.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 10:40 AM.
