The Farmacy cannabis company made out well in the preliminary list of dispensary operators chosen to apply for coveted Santa Barbara County licenses, top-ranked for two of the six locations.
The county has been steadily narrowing the list of applicants and on Thursday released a preliminary ranked list for five of the six locations.
The top-ranked operator for each area will be allowed to start the land use entitlement and business license application process.
“The Orcutt Community Plan Area is undergoing a legal challenge, and the county is complying with a stay order issued by the court on March 12,” county officials said in a statement Thursday. “The preliminary ranked list for this CPA will be released once allowed by the court.”
Applicants have five days to file a written scoring protest, and afterward, the County Executive Office will finalize the ranked storefront retail list.
The Farmacy, which operates a Santa Barbara city dispensary, multiple Carpinteria Valley cannabis farms and other related businesses, was ranked first for spots in Isla Vista and Santa Ynez.
Haven, which operates seven dispensaries in the Los Angeles area, applied to operate dispensaries in five locations and was top-ranked for the Los Alamos location.
Island Drift LLC, doing business as The Annex, has John Price of Santa Barbara listed as the manager in Secretary of State incorporation documents.
3823 SCL LLC, named for the Santa Claus Lane address of the proposed location, was top-ranked for the Toro Canyon/Summerland spot. Incorporation documents list managers including the property owners and Beth Thuna of HPC of Santa Barbara (which has dispensaries in Port Hueneme and Lompoc).
Santa Barbara County decided to limit the number of dispensaries to one per community plan area for Toro Canyon/Summerland, the Eastern Goleta Valley, Isla Vista/Goleta, Santa Ynez and Los Alamos.
Cannabis dispensary business licenses are in high demand, particularly in communities that limited the number of permits and licenses available.
Jushi, based in Florida, legally acquired control of one of the three approved licenses for the city before the original license holder, Golden State Greens, ever opened a dispensary. As a result, the new operator did not go through the same community scrutiny and review process as applicants.
According to reporting by Noozhawk’s Joshua Molina, the stock transfer was estimated at $9 million.
The Santa Barbara Police Department recently hired a firm to investigate allegations related to the cannabis dispensary transfer and review process.
Jushi, doing business as Beyond/Hello, is also one of the applicants for an Orcutt dispensary license.
Scroll down for a map of the 20 applicant finalists for county dispensary licenses.
— 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.