CANNABIS IN SONOMA COUNTY TODAY

What's in the ordinance?

The Cannabis Ordinance was passed October 16, 2018 and hasbeen updated numerous times. The Final Environmental Impact Review (FEIR) was completed and approved by the Board of Supervisors in September 2025, over the objections of the environmental community, farming community, CDFW, and the public.  The Cannabis Ordinance was updated December 2025 based on this faulty FEIR and will go into effect July 1,2026.  The Cannabis ordinance is part of Chapter 26. SONOMA COUNTY ZONING REGULATIONS

Where is cannabis allowed?

Want to check the zone for a particular parcel? Look up Zoning Code information here.

What activities are permitted?

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What are key provisions of the ordinance

Visual showing the key regulations that govern outdoor, mixed light, and indoor cultivationVisual showing key regulations that govern indoor regulation

What additional provisions exist?

  • Fire Code Requirements. A project requires a Fire Prevention Plan for construction and ongoing operations, including, but not be limited to: emergency vehicle access and turn-around at the facility site(s), vegetation management and fire break maintenance around all structures
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  • Lighting. All lighting shall be fully shielded, downward casting and not spill over onto structures, other properties or the night sky. All indoor and mixed light operations shall be fully contained so that little to no light escapes. Light shall not escape at a level that is visible from neighboring properties between sunset and sunrise
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  • Security and Fencing. A requirement for a County specific Site Security Plan was eliminated in the Dec 2025 Ordiance update. The County is deferring to California law which has signficantly less protection for the public. All Site Security Plans are held in a confidential file, exempt from disclosure as a public record
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  • Air Quality and Odor. All indoor and mixed light cultivation operations and any drying, aging, trimming and packing facilities must be equipped with odor control filtration and ventilation system(s) to control odors, humidity, and mold. All cultivation sites shall utilize dust control measures on access roads and all ground disturbing activities. No provisions for controlling odor on outdoor grows
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  • Water Source. On-site water supply must meet all uses on a sustainable basis. Trucked water shall not be allowed, except as provided in code. The onsite water supply is considered adequate if from the following sources: Municipal, recycle, surface, well, groundwater well.   Special rules apply to different groundwater zones (1,2,3,4)
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  • Groundwater Monitoring. Water wells used for cultivation are monitored for level and quantity pumped.  Results are recorded quarterly and are self reported annually by the grower to the Permit and Resource Management Department
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  • Health and Safety clause. The December 2025 update eliminated the specific cannabis clause that had required no cannabis operation cause a public nuisance or adversely affect health and safety of neighbors, including from odor, noise, traffic or safety. Now general rules apply.

Why is this so contentious?

Since the regulations were passed there has been extended - and at times acrimonious - debate about how exactly the ordinance should be interpreted and where cultivation can realistically be done. With a large percentage of the county theoretically open to cultivation and limited guidance on how to resolve the thorny and competing interests, several flashpoints have emerged.

7+ years in and no one is happy

  • Cannabis community says the legal route is overly cumbersome, expensive and has very high uncertainty, resulting in the County adopting a ministerial "crop swap" provision which is legally questionable (California law does not allow). Criteria was not adopted to establish exclusion or inclusion zones; thus, determining if a location is suitable for cultivation continues to fall in gray area, in an already opaque permitting process.
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  • Neighbors were told they could rely on "neighborhood compatibility" to protect their residential areas, but the ordinance failed to define it, is entirely unclear what falls under it, how it's measured, when something is incompatible and who gets to decide, and this has led to many of the clashes around where it's appropriate to site grows
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  • Smaller growers who had previously been illegal but wanted to go legal had to massively increase the size of their grows just to justify the cost of going through legalization. Competition from the state-wide market place has driven prices down, making operating extremely difficult.
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  • Many of the original and new provisions of the ordinance are based on analogues from other industries (e.g. wine), since on-the-ground experience was lacking, thus provisions often don't mitigate real impacts -- for e.g. the ability of a 300-600 ft setback to mitigate odors from a 44,000sq ft outdoor grow next to a residence
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  • We're using code enforcement as legislation -- neighbors are told to monitor local grows and report violations if grievances are to be addressed by the county code enforcement. However, if the original permitting process did not identify specific mitigations, then it becomes impossible to prove a violation. And anything that can't be proven as a violation, de facto has no real legislation around it

In June 2021 the Board of Supervisors instructed County Staff to conduct a full Environmental Impact Review ahead of drafting a revised ordinance. The 2025 Final EIR failed to address the concerns of the enviromental community and public.  Read our full coverage of the ongoing Ordinance rewrite and EIR process here.

what else is being debated?

In addition to reworking the primary ordinance, the Board of Supervisors occasionally considers other, related cannabis topics. You'll see our detailed write ups on each of them below

"Crop Swap ministerial permitting

The County’s December 2025 Ordinance update will allow genuine agricultural crops (apples, grapes) to be “swapped” for marijuana fields with no consideration of unhealthy air emissions, placement of ugly hoop houses (which will not undergo design review), water use, traffic, crime, emergency evacuation, or other environmental issues. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the County ministerial crop swaps would endanger our water supply and biotic resources, but Permit Sonoma ignored this trustee agency. The County can issue ministerial permits for crop swaps that never expire. There is no opportunity for public input. 

Read our coverage here

Tax Moratorium

Annually the cannabis business taxes are reviewed.  Each year the cannabis industry has requested a tax reduction which has been championed by two members of the Board of Supervisors.   Now the taxes no longer cover the program costs, let along achieve the stated goal of providing funds for essential government services (“pot for potholes”).

Read our coverage here

1000 ft setbacks

Numerous Neighborhood groups, including the unincorporated town of Bloomfield have lobbied to have the ordinance amended to provide for 1000 ft setbacks for unincorporated towns and for family residences.

SonomaNeighborhoodCoalition@gmail.com
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