The draft cannabis Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was released Friday, January 11th, following the timeline needed to have the County’s permanent cannabis ordinance in place by the start of this year’s cannabis grow season.
After receiving the Cannabis Regulation Community Advisory Group's recommendations in January 2018, the Board provided direction to staff for drafting the County's new permanent cannabis ordinance. Since then, staff has used the direction from the Board to draft the first copy of the County's new cannabis ordinance, which required conducting an EIR in compliance with the State's California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. CEQA’s guidelines ensure that any potential physical environmental effects of the proposed Commercial Cannabis Cultivation Ordinance are researched and addressed in an EIR report.
Nevada County’s Community Development Agency Director, Sean Powers, says, “We did an enormous amount of work in a very short timeframe and are passing a significant milestone in releasing the draft EIR.”
The public can submit written and email comments on the draft EIR by submitting them to the Planning Department at Suite 170, 950 Maidu Ave in Nevada City or planning@co.nevada.ca.us through February 25th at 5:00 p.m. The draft EIR will also come before Nevada County’s Planning Commission at their February 7th meeting for public and Commission comments on the EIR, After comments are received by both the public and the Planning Commission, staff will incorporate all comments into the report and a final version of the EIR will come back to the Planning Commission in March for final review, discussion, and a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The EIR will then come to the Board of Supervisors for consideration and adoption in April.
The public comments received on the draft EIR through February 25th are part of a 45 day comment period. County staff will be working on responses as received to keep the EIR on track with the timeline to adopt the County’s permanent cannabis ordinance in the spring.
