Here’s what’s coming and what’s allowed when it comes to cannabis on the North Coast

A marijuana operation could be coming to a North Coast area near you.

But how that will happen and the new regulations that will control that cannabis business in unincorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County are still being adjusted periodically by county supervisors after adopting its permanent cannabis ordinance in November 2017.

Senior county planner Jay Johnson told a full-house audience at the Aug. 15 meeting of the North Coast Advisory Council that the tweaked ordinances and regulations will be presented to planning commissioners and supervisors over the next few months and even into 2019.

The first set of changes is expected to go before the county Planning Commission in October, with supervisors expected to review commission recommendations in December.

The complex set of requirements varies somewhat from one unincorporated area of the county to another. Johnson handed out copies of a matrix of the regulations and a list of those and possible operations on the North Coast.

For now, this is what could happen in those areas, Johnson said:

▪ Personal use: Each household is allowed to grow six marijuana plants indoors, and use or consume those plants inside that home. No use is allowed in a public area.

▪ Johnson expects to receive and process more applications for cultivation permits in the area. “We’re getting about 150 applications a week” countywide, he said.

▪ Cultivation on agricultural, rural or residential rural lands: Three land parcels, all “behind Tin City,” he said, are properly zoned for that use. Each parcel would be allowed 10 acres of cultivation on 25 acres or more of land.

▪ Mobile delivery of cannabis products: The customer would order those products online, by phone or by other means, and the cannabis purveyor would bring those products to the customer’s home or work site.

▪ No store-front dispensaries, where customers can peruse the products and buy them there, are allowed in any unincorporated area of the county.

▪ Commercial dispensaries, testing and distribution facilities could be established in the Tin Village/Village Lane area. No manufacturing would be allowed, according to planning area standards.

▪ On agricultural lands around Cambria, cultivation, nurseries, limited manufacturing and limited dispensing (again, mobile) would be allowed.

▪ Johnson said San Simeon doesn’t have proper zoning for cannabis operations. However, he didn’t address the large swaths of agricultural land in that area.