It could be another six months before a county-approved cannabis dispensary opens its doors.
The county decided to allow six retail cannabis dispensaries in six specific unincorporated areas, and chose operators in April.
The Farmacy, which runs a Santa Barbara dispensary and owns several cannabis-related businesses throughout the county and the state, was the top-ranked applicant for two of the six locations, and has already received land-use permits, said Brittany Heaton of the County Executive Office.
The company is still working on its business license applications, and hopes to open by mid-2022, Heaton told Noozhawk last week.
The Farmacy’s dispensary locations at 3576 Madera Drive in Santa Ynez and 6555 Pardall Road in Isla Vista are realistically four to six months from opening, she said.
The other four dispensaries going through the Planning & Development permit process right now include:
» 4235 State Street, application by Island Drift LLC, doing business as The Annex, with John Price of Santa Barbara listed as the manager in Secretary of State incorporation documents.
» 520 Bell Street in Los Alamos, operated by Haven, a chain of dispensaries with locations in Los Angeles.
» 3823 Santa Claus Lane in the Carpinteria Valley, operated by HPC of Santa Barbara that has dispensaries in Port Hueneme and Lompoc.
» 1604 E. Clark Avenue, Building B, Suite 1 in Orcutt, operated by the Cookies chain of dispensaries that has a location in Lompoc.
The Orcutt location ranking was released later than the rest of them due to a legal challenge by a lower-ranked applicant.
Five of the six dispensaries are going into existing buildings.
For the Upper State Street location, Price plans to demolish the existing auto repair facility structures and construct a dispensary building and parking lot on the site.
Architect Brian Cearnal presented the updated project proposal to the South Board of Architectural Review on Dec. 17, and members were supportive of the building design and landscaping plan for the property.
The cities of Lompoc, Goleta and Santa Barbara have permitted multiple cannabis dispensaries, while other cities have banned them.
That means the dispensaries in unincorporated areas will be the closest locations for some city areas such as Santa Maria and Carpinteria.
Retail cannabis businesses are required to pay the county 6% of their gross receipts, which is a higher rate than cultivation, nursery, manufacturing and distribution businesses.
The county has reported lower-than-expected cannabis tax revenues recently, and county fiscal analyst Steven Yee said an oversupply of wholesale cannabis is lowering prices.
Yee said that the number of licensed retail locations statewide remains an issue when compared to the amount of cannabis product being produced, in addition to the demand from consumers, Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue reported last week.
Most of Santa Barbara County’s cannabis-related operators are cultivators, who pay a lower tax rate than processing and retail businesses. About a third of the county’s cannabis operators did not report any revenues in the most recent fiscal quarter, according to Yee.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
