James Ager tried to say that the reason Butte County now has the issue with all of the marijuana businesses is due to no zoning ordinance for the county. He pointed to state law saying all they could determine was the time, place and manner of these businesses and with no zoning ordinance in place, they couldn’t do anything about the location of these businesses.
Travis Ismay gave a rebuttal saying that state law allowed the counties to determine not only the place, time, and manner, but also how many, and noted counties that have no zoning ordinances that also have no marijuana businesses, proving that what James Ager tried to use an excuse here doesn’t hold water. The commission had every ability to be able to heavily regulate marijuana businesses in Butte County, or not allow any at all. Their original ordinance allowed a maximum of two before they amended it to unlimited grow farms, 2 dispensaries and 2 manufacturing, which they amended again from unlimited grow farms to 5, grandfathering in 1.
The lack of zoning isn’t the problem here…