The Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis filed a class-action lawsuit against several cannabis cultivators in Carpinteria earlier this month, alleging a public nuisance due to noxious odors and the “concoction of chemicals” in vapor-emitting odor control systems.
The coalition, an advocacy group, is a plaintiff along with Carpinteria Valley residents Dr. William Hahn and Dani Dall’Armi — owners of the Rose Story Farm — Chonnie Bliss Jacobsen, and a class of individual property owners residing near commercial cannabis operations.
Specific farms and owners listed as defendants include Ceres Farms, Valley Crest Farms, and the Van Wingerden Family Trust. Case Van Wingerden and Alex Van Wingerden are also listed as defendants.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs have “lost the occupancy, use, and/or enjoyment of their land and/or real property” due to the odor and chemicals.
People who live and work near the concentration of greenhouse cannabis farms have raised concerns for years about odors and the vapor-emitting odor control systems. Local residents and the coalition have appealed almost every cultivation permit approval in the area, often over odor concerns.
Attorney Robert Curtis of Foley, Bezek Behle & Curtis, LLC, who is representing the plaintiffs, also represented the coalition and local residents who sued a group of Carpinteria Valley cannabis growers in 2020 for similar complaints.
Both sides reached a settlement in that case, which was later dismissed.
The lawsuit filed this month aims to make more growers use carbon air filtration systems as odor abatement technology, according to the Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis.
“This lawsuit seeks to right a wrong that has persisted since the creation of Santa Barbara County’s failed cannabis ordinance in 2016 by the Board of Supervisors,” representatives said in a statement about the lawsuit.
According to the initial complaint filed in the case, the plaintiffs say they would likely settle and drop the case if defendants use carbon-based filtration methods that prevent odors or chemicals from the current odor control systems from extending beyond the defendants’ land.
Several farms in the area have already voluntarily agreed to install carbon “scrubbers” as odor control or have that as a condition of county permit approval.
“These growers are not the good neighbors they claim to be,” Curtis said. “They continue to profit from their cannabis-growing operations at the expense of their neighbors, who no longer can enjoy their homes and neighborhoods because of the terrible and persistent smell.
“Cannabis continues to be a problem for the people of Carpinteria, and you don’t need a courtroom to prove it: All you have to do is step outside.”
The defendants have not filed a response to the lawsuit in court. Representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
A case-management conference has been scheduled for January.