The process of selecting the owner and location of the single cannabis retail store that’ll operate in Orcutt recently kicked off with a virtual community meeting.
Santa Barbara County officials held the meeting on July 9, which included an overview of how the decision will be made and a chance for residents to provide input. According to county regulations, one cannabis retail store is permitted to open in each of the six county community plan areas, including Orcutt and Los Alamos.
Selecting who receives the permit to each of these locations involves a lengthy application process that weighs neighborhood compatibility among other factors. The county Board of Supervisors will vote on a final score sheet that’ll be used to guide this process during its Aug. 18 meeting, Assistant County Executive Officer Barney Melekian said during the virtual meeting.
“We are all very aware of the sensitivity and the concerns that this issue generates, and our commitment is to developing a process that is objective and transparent,” Melekian said.
During the meeting, which more than 100 people called in to—although not everyone spoke—many residents voiced their opposition to the store potentially being located in Old Town Orcutt. In May, the public learned that Helios Dayspring, who runs the Natural Healing Center stores in San Luis Obispo County, purchased the building where Old Town Market is located with the intention of applying for a cannabis retail permit.
Wendy Seller, who has owned the market with her husband, Mark, for the last 16 years, said she’s concerned about the amount of vehicle traffic a cannabis store could bring through the community. She asked how the county would keep kids safe as they crossed Clark Avenue walking to and from school with that additional traffic on the roadway.
While traffic was a common concern repeated throughout the meeting, other speakers said that a cannabis dispensary simply doesn’t fit with the character of Old Town Orcutt.
Joe Dana, who works at the Orcutt Union School District, said that while about 60 percent of county residents voted in favor of legalizing cannabis, the majority of Orcutt residents didn’t. Therefore, he proposed that a store shouldn’t be located at the center of the community.
“And so it follows, in my view, that the best locations for a cannabis dispensary are on the periphery of Orcutt, away from our schools, away from the core of our community,” Dana said.
According to a county map presented at the meeting, there are only a few areas where a cannabis retail store could open in Orcutt that would also be outside of the 750-foot buffers the county established around sensitive receptors, such as schools and day cares. This includes parts of Old Town Orcutt, the area near Clark Avenue and Highway 101, near the intersection of Union Valley Parkway and Broadway, and near the intersection of Black Road and Tanglewood Drive.
Although many of the people who spoke at the meeting were opposed to a potential store opening in Orcutt, Natural Healing Center representative Joe Armendariz spoke about the economic opportunity the cannabis industry presents for the community. He said the store could bring in up to $1 million a year in sales tax, which he recommended the Board of Supervisors should consider reinvesting directly into the community where the funds were generated.
“The reality is that this opportunity that the people of Orcutt have could be the difference between funding our public infrastructure and not funding it,” Armendariz said. “I just think you can’t overstate the importance of the opportunity we have today.”
Highlight
• The city of Santa Maria is offering free indoor recycling bins to businesses in the city. Businesses can choose from either tall bins with a lid for cans and bottles or a small bin for recyclable paper. Businesses can request up to four bins until the city runs out. Interested businesses should contact the city’s Utilities Department at (805) 925-0951, Ext. 7270.
Staff writer Zac Ezzone wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 16-23, 2020.