Item 4B cannabis expansion. Expansion should only be allowed for existing permitted small farms by definition of the state department of cannabis control. The code should be modified to allow existing permits to to be eligible for expansion up to 10k. I have a permit on 7 acres and I'm only allowed 5k canopy. The existing code should be modified so I can obtain a 10K permit on my 7 acre parcel. Other permittee on smaller parcels should be allowed to expand to 10K.
I implore the board of supervisors to examine the backlash from community neighbors in lake county in response to large scale cannabis grows.
As submitted by the GrassRoots Institute and the Collaborative Community Action Project, this Public Comment for Public Record supports the Request for a Resolution and Ordinance that will protect our existing unpermitted housing and protect our beleaguered elders, young people and working families from the stress and financial harm of our County’s current code enforcement practices.
In the course of gathering petition signatures in support of an amnesty on code enforcement for housing in Mendocino County, I have met many people that support the idea of a 5 year pause in code enforcement to allow community members to gather and collaborate to improve housing outcomes for our residents. Some people have pointed out that some buildings may not be safe or weatherized; during that amnesty period, the Collaborative Community Action Project hopes to work with the business stakeholders and community residents to provide help in improving weatherization and safety requirements. Although a few naysayers have made their voices heard, I have been impressed by the real estate, construction, and enforcement professionals, as well as ordinary county residents, who support a change in code enforcement practices.
As a behavioral health care professional living and working in Fort Bragg, I have watched some of my patients struggle miserably. One hard-working dedicated single mother has exhausted her health trying to keep up with $2000 monthly rent for a one-bedroom and the high PG&E bills due to deficient weatherization of the rental; she is leaving the county now as it is untenable for her family. Another patient was recently given notice to vacate after many years of tenancy and is now hoping to find an RV to live in on a friend’s property; happily, at this moment, she does not think of leaving the county—a blessing as her presence is an uplifting gift in our community. Must be the season for evictions as I know two others who are losing their rentals as well. I’d like to find ways to help the exhausted workers and families stay in our area.
Talking with people in our communities and neighborhoods, I see where the right to a safe and habitable living environment has been violated. I have seen both people who have lost their housing and income to Code Enforcement rules and renters who can barely make ends meet paying exorbitant rents and high utility bills in non weatherized unpermitted dwellings. Thus unfolds a pattern of anxious and depressive feelings related to housing and the seeming inability and despair to get our heads above water with the powers who be. I have seen these mental health challenges spiral into desperation and physical health challenges. A public health case can be made for alleviating more quickly the loss of adequate shelter and improving the habitability of unpermitted structures rented to hardworking citizens, often single parents or the elderly. Putting in place a new amnesty program to give time to landowners to mediate with the county and educate Code Enforcement about the bogus vengeful complaints that humans can make seems an immediate need and sound first step.
Finally, the high stress and anxiety about paying rent and keeping a shelter over our heads sometimes leads to a diminishing mutual trust and respect and more fear and resentment among renter, landowner and county official. A more collaborative relationship among these roles is needed to advance solidarity and compassion in our communities.
This is in support of a reinstatement of the unpermitted buildings amnesty program that expired at the end of 2024. Whatever benefits the first period of amnesty might have created are not visible in the community, where our vulnerable persons (the aged, the disabled, the low-income workers) are being displaced or bankrupted with heartbreaking stories about malicious or predatory complaints from neighbors or those who are looking for a tear-down opportunity, using the permit enforcement personnel who are constrained by the regulations they must follow, as their instruments. We are now lacking a functional federal government, which, frankly, was never going to save us or solve our local problems, anyway. The urgent and potentially catastrophic problems we face right here in this community (climate disruption and climate refugees, increasing climate emergencies, clean water, healthy offshore habitat and the fishing industry, access to appropriate medical care, food security, sustainable systems for all our people and environments in this beautiful County) cannot even begin to be solved without a roof over the heads of those who need our protection. We literally could be looking at death by bureaucracy right in our neighborhoods. The first common-sense, compassionate step we can take is to reinstate the amnesty program, this time with a plan and some specific goals, and use the hiatus to save some lives while making our local bureaucracies less blindly punitive. Unless there is imminent danger to the occupant or their neighborhood, let's find a more compassionate way. The way we're going right now paves the way for displacing humans, some of them our wise, precious elders who helped make the unique quality of life on this coast what it is, for the enrichment of predatory developers and vengeful neighbors. Thank you.
Item 4B cannabis expansion. Expansion should only be allowed for existing permitted small farms by definition of the state department of cannabis control. The code should be modified to allow existing permits to to be eligible for expansion up to 10k. I have a permit on 7 acres and I'm only allowed 5k canopy. The existing code should be modified so I can obtain a 10K permit on my 7 acre parcel. Other permittee on smaller parcels should be allowed to expand to 10K.
I implore the board of supervisors to examine the backlash from community neighbors in lake county in response to large scale cannabis grows.
As submitted by the GrassRoots Institute and the Collaborative Community Action Project, this Public Comment for Public Record supports the Request for a Resolution and Ordinance that will protect our existing unpermitted housing and protect our beleaguered elders, young people and working families from the stress and financial harm of our County’s current code enforcement practices.
In the course of gathering petition signatures in support of an amnesty on code enforcement for housing in Mendocino County, I have met many people that support the idea of a 5 year pause in code enforcement to allow community members to gather and collaborate to improve housing outcomes for our residents. Some people have pointed out that some buildings may not be safe or weatherized; during that amnesty period, the Collaborative Community Action Project hopes to work with the business stakeholders and community residents to provide help in improving weatherization and safety requirements. Although a few naysayers have made their voices heard, I have been impressed by the real estate, construction, and enforcement professionals, as well as ordinary county residents, who support a change in code enforcement practices.
As a behavioral health care professional living and working in Fort Bragg, I have watched some of my patients struggle miserably. One hard-working dedicated single mother has exhausted her health trying to keep up with $2000 monthly rent for a one-bedroom and the high PG&E bills due to deficient weatherization of the rental; she is leaving the county now as it is untenable for her family. Another patient was recently given notice to vacate after many years of tenancy and is now hoping to find an RV to live in on a friend’s property; happily, at this moment, she does not think of leaving the county—a blessing as her presence is an uplifting gift in our community. Must be the season for evictions as I know two others who are losing their rentals as well. I’d like to find ways to help the exhausted workers and families stay in our area.
Talking with people in our communities and neighborhoods, I see where the right to a safe and habitable living environment has been violated. I have seen both people who have lost their housing and income to Code Enforcement rules and renters who can barely make ends meet paying exorbitant rents and high utility bills in non weatherized unpermitted dwellings. Thus unfolds a pattern of anxious and depressive feelings related to housing and the seeming inability and despair to get our heads above water with the powers who be. I have seen these mental health challenges spiral into desperation and physical health challenges. A public health case can be made for alleviating more quickly the loss of adequate shelter and improving the habitability of unpermitted structures rented to hardworking citizens, often single parents or the elderly. Putting in place a new amnesty program to give time to landowners to mediate with the county and educate Code Enforcement about the bogus vengeful complaints that humans can make seems an immediate need and sound first step.
Finally, the high stress and anxiety about paying rent and keeping a shelter over our heads sometimes leads to a diminishing mutual trust and respect and more fear and resentment among renter, landowner and county official. A more collaborative relationship among these roles is needed to advance solidarity and compassion in our communities.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
This is in support of a reinstatement of the unpermitted buildings amnesty program that expired at the end of 2024. Whatever benefits the first period of amnesty might have created are not visible in the community, where our vulnerable persons (the aged, the disabled, the low-income workers) are being displaced or bankrupted with heartbreaking stories about malicious or predatory complaints from neighbors or those who are looking for a tear-down opportunity, using the permit enforcement personnel who are constrained by the regulations they must follow, as their instruments. We are now lacking a functional federal government, which, frankly, was never going to save us or solve our local problems, anyway. The urgent and potentially catastrophic problems we face right here in this community (climate disruption and climate refugees, increasing climate emergencies, clean water, healthy offshore habitat and the fishing industry, access to appropriate medical care, food security, sustainable systems for all our people and environments in this beautiful County) cannot even begin to be solved without a roof over the heads of those who need our protection. We literally could be looking at death by bureaucracy right in our neighborhoods. The first common-sense, compassionate step we can take is to reinstate the amnesty program, this time with a plan and some specific goals, and use the hiatus to save some lives while making our local bureaucracies less blindly punitive. Unless there is imminent danger to the occupant or their neighborhood, let's find a more compassionate way. The way we're going right now paves the way for displacing humans, some of them our wise, precious elders who helped make the unique quality of life on this coast what it is, for the enrichment of predatory developers and vengeful neighbors. Thank you.