4h) Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to Planning and Building Services and Cannabis Department to Review Opportunities and Identify Limitations Related to Microbusiness Licenses and to Explore Alignment of County Processes Related to Microbusiness Licenses with State Regulations; and Referral of These Cannabis Microbusiness License Issues to General Government Committee
(Sponsor: Supervisor Haschak)
We have been advocating for an easier process to allow more licenses activities onsite for small cultivation, such as self distribution, nonvolatile manufacturing & eventually, direct sales via delivery service &or shipping. As of now given our remote location, we are zoned out of the current microbusiness option at the County level. We support this action as well as the letter written by Jim Roberts.
Thank you for your consideration, Laura & Marty Clein, Martyjuana™
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
501 Low Gap Road, Room 1070
Ukiah, CA 95482
May 5, 2025
RE: May 6, 2025 BoS Agenda Item 4h Letter of Request (Direction to Planning and Building Services and Cannabis Department to Review Opportunities and Identify Limitations Related to Microbusiness Licenses)
Dear Honorable Supervisors,
This agenda item was brought to my attention recently and it is a subject that I have advocated for over the years. To give you my background, I am currently an owner of two micro- businesses in Mendocino County. Our first license was at our Madrones property in Anderson Valley for our brand, The Bohemian Chemist. We were granted this license in late 2019 and were the 12th annual micro-business in the state. The second is a micro-business license that was just issued two weeks ago for our farm, Sugar Hill Farm, LLC, which is also located in Anderson Valley. Our site and parameters at both locations were fairly straight forward, so this process for county approval took around 4-5 months. The reason that I am reaching out is though our licensing process was fairly straight forward, the process for other farmers has not been. In fact due to current requirements by both Building and Planning, there can be great barriers for attaining licensing whether they are zoning requirements or issues with structures and property improvements. I would truly encourage the board as well as county department leadership to explore avenues that will lower the threshold for many of our other heritage farms in our legacy growing region. Creating waivers for conditional requirements, grandfathering in property improvements, status exemptions or simply revisiting some of the checklist that county is requiring, but the state is not. This can include non-permitted structures, property access, onsite utilities or other property improvements that our outside of the site premises of the licensed cannabis operation on a given parcel. I know of other counties that have taken this approach in order to secure permitting and operations of it’s small farms and businesses.
With the California cannabis industry in it’s infancy, it has been an extremely turbulent and volatile market even for the most seasoned and well resourced players. Upwards of 70% of new businesses that have entered the market, have failed. This couldn’t be more true of our small farmers in our communities. Mendocino County has a very unique and authentic cannabis history and it primarily revolves around its legacy farms. Having just a cultivation license in the current environment makes it almost impossible to survive and compete. The way that the state has structured the licensing, small farms need to have licensing with numerous allowed activities outside of just cultivation. They need to be able to distribute their own products, do light manufacturing as well as fully package shelf-ready products. The micro-business license was originally designed particularly for these small cottage businesses.
I hope that the board as well as county leadership will investigate ways of streamlining this process and remove barriers to entry for the many small businesses in our communities. Though the current cannabis market environment feels bleak, it will eventually cycle out of this into a thriving industry. The county needs to do everything possible to position ourselves for that turn around by preserving our generation farms. Allowing more micro-businesses licensing is key step in our future success.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jim Roberts
The Bohemian Chemist
The Madrones and The Brambles
Sugar Hill Farm
Dear Supervisors,
We have been advocating for an easier process to allow more licenses activities onsite for small cultivation, such as self distribution, nonvolatile manufacturing & eventually, direct sales via delivery service &or shipping. As of now given our remote location, we are zoned out of the current microbusiness option at the County level. We support this action as well as the letter written by Jim Roberts.
Thank you for your consideration, Laura & Marty Clein, Martyjuana™
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
501 Low Gap Road, Room 1070
Ukiah, CA 95482
May 5, 2025
RE: May 6, 2025 BoS Agenda Item 4h Letter of Request (Direction to Planning and Building Services and Cannabis Department to Review Opportunities and Identify Limitations Related to Microbusiness Licenses)
Dear Honorable Supervisors,
This agenda item was brought to my attention recently and it is a subject that I have advocated for over the years. To give you my background, I am currently an owner of two micro- businesses in Mendocino County. Our first license was at our Madrones property in Anderson Valley for our brand, The Bohemian Chemist. We were granted this license in late 2019 and were the 12th annual micro-business in the state. The second is a micro-business license that was just issued two weeks ago for our farm, Sugar Hill Farm, LLC, which is also located in Anderson Valley. Our site and parameters at both locations were fairly straight forward, so this process for county approval took around 4-5 months. The reason that I am reaching out is though our licensing process was fairly straight forward, the process for other farmers has not been. In fact due to current requirements by both Building and Planning, there can be great barriers for attaining licensing whether they are zoning requirements or issues with structures and property improvements. I would truly encourage the board as well as county department leadership to explore avenues that will lower the threshold for many of our other heritage farms in our legacy growing region. Creating waivers for conditional requirements, grandfathering in property improvements, status exemptions or simply revisiting some of the checklist that county is requiring, but the state is not. This can include non-permitted structures, property access, onsite utilities or other property improvements that our outside of the site premises of the licensed cannabis operation on a given parcel. I know of other counties that have taken this approach in order to secure permitting and operations of it’s small farms and businesses.
With the California cannabis industry in it’s infancy, it has been an extremely turbulent and volatile market even for the most seasoned and well resourced players. Upwards of 70% of new businesses that have entered the market, have failed. This couldn’t be more true of our small farmers in our communities. Mendocino County has a very unique and authentic cannabis history and it primarily revolves around its legacy farms. Having just a cultivation license in the current environment makes it almost impossible to survive and compete. The way that the state has structured the licensing, small farms need to have licensing with numerous allowed activities outside of just cultivation. They need to be able to distribute their own products, do light manufacturing as well as fully package shelf-ready products. The micro-business license was originally designed particularly for these small cottage businesses.
I hope that the board as well as county leadership will investigate ways of streamlining this process and remove barriers to entry for the many small businesses in our communities. Though the current cannabis market environment feels bleak, it will eventually cycle out of this into a thriving industry. The county needs to do everything possible to position ourselves for that turn around by preserving our generation farms. Allowing more micro-businesses licensing is key step in our future success.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jim Roberts
The Bohemian Chemist
The Madrones and The Brambles
Sugar Hill Farm