To: Board of Supervisors
From: Planning and Building Department
Agenda Section: Departmental
Vote Requirement: Majority
SUBJECT:
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Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program (LJAG) Cannabis Farmer Water and Energy Conservation Projects Update
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Receive the report on the status and changes to Humboldt County's portion of the LJAG program resulting from a year-long state operational audit of the DCC grant program.
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STRATEGIC PLAN:
This action supports the following areas of your Board's Strategic Plan.
Area of Focus: Safe & Healthy Communities
Strategic Plan Category: 1009 - Expand county infrastructure resilience
DISCUSSION:
A state audit of the DCC grant program has resulted in changes to the county's ability to issue grants to individuals previously approved to receive DCC grants. The report will provide background on what was done and what has changed.
In November 2021, the Board of Supervisors authorized the Planning and Building Department to submit a grant application for $18.6 million in LJAG funding to the DCC to provide cannabis farmers grant money for water storage and conservation and to conversion from generators to green energy sources and to fund a hydrological study of local watersheds to assist in determining guidelines for new wells associated with cultivation.
The Board of Supervisors approved allocating grants to cannabis farmers based upon specific ranking criteria. For water use related grants the criterial component was whether an applicant was a provisional license holder and within an impacted or refuge watershed and for power grants how much power would be converted to a renewable source and whether they were a provisional license holder. The ranking criteria prioritized the provisional license holders, but since these were grants to address cumulative environmental concerns, the grants were also ...
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