Dec 1 2024 Newsletter - Act Now to Protect Sonoma County's Rural Character

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December 1, 2024

Act Now to Protect Sonoma County’s Rural Character!

Our Board of Supervisors has proposed extreme changes to the cannabis ordinance that threaten our health, neighborhoods, and quality of life.  These include:

  1. Permitting on-site dispensaries and consumption at cultivation sites, turning our rural lands into commercial zones with impaired drivers on our narrow county roads with inadequate police protection.
  2. Allowing 104 cannabis events per site per year—with onsite consumption in rural areas. That’s twice a week, far more than most wineries!
  3. Shrinking minimum lot sizes for outdoor cannabis cultivation to just five acres - with minimal setbacks from homes. This means the stench from outdoor grows will be unavoidable and intense.
  4. Spewing airborne carcinogens into our unprotected neighborhoods and homes.

These proposals will increase crime, traffic, put us at risk of injury from impaired drivers, and will compromise the air we breathe.  They jeopardize property values, our health, the peaceful enjoyment of our homes, and the cherished rural character that makes Sonoma County unique.

Why We Need Your Help?

The Neighborhood Coalition is partnering with our technical experts and legal team to protect your family's health and your property values. In 2021 we successfully challenged the County’s inadequate environmental and neighborhood compatibility processes and forced the County to abandon its flawed ordinance. We’re facing the same challenge now with even more dire proposals by the County.

During the Environmental Impact Report process our team will develop the facts to defend residents from the revised cannabis ordinance's worst impacts.  Expert studies will demonstrate the irreparable impacts of expanded outdoor cannabis cultivation on us and our sensitive lands. We succeeded in 2021, and with your help, can do it again.

What Can You Do?

Our campaign to preserve what we all hold near and dear needs your support. Your tax-deductible donation will fund technical experts and our legal team that are critical to our effort to require the County to protect our environment, children, and the health and safety of our neighborhoods.

The Neighborhood Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, volunteer-based, dedicated to advocating for proper cannabis and land-use policies that benefit the community. All donations support these efforts.

You can donate online , or you can mail a check to:

Sonoma Neighborhood Coalition
PO Box 1229
Sebastopol, CA 95473

Thank you for your support and donation.
The Neighborhood Coalition team