After a second public hearing on the Colusa Triple Crown Cannabis Business Park on East Clay Street on Feb. 7, again without the developers in the room to present the project, the Colusa City Council continued the hearing to a date that has not yet been determined.
The City Council is tasked with considering whether to grant a developer agreement and conditional use permit that will allow construction of an 84-acre marijuana development and research park, but city officials and the public want the developers present to answer questions about who they could be dealing with in the future.
The Colusa Planning Commission previously approved a 40-year developer agreement with Mike Olivas and Courtney Dubar after determining the project was compatible with the city’s General Plan and would not be detrimental to the health, safety, and general welfare of the public.
However, the Planning Commission denied the conditional use permit that would pave the way for construction of the facility, which prompted developers to appeal to the City Council.
Colusa Councilman Ryan Codornez, who was on the Planning Commission when the DA was approved 4-0, with one recusal, said he was very concerned that the contract presented to the Planning Commission is not the same document presented to the City Council.
“I will say there is some verbiage in there now that I do not like that I would like changed, but the scale of income (for the city) is a lot better,” Codorniz said. “But at the same time, it doesn’t matter how much money they want to give us, as long as it works well for the city and our people. We want to make sure we get it right the first time because we may not get a second chance at this.”
Mayor Greg Ponciano said he had similar concerns as the City Council has given no specific direction to staff to modify the DA since he opened the public hearing.
Ponciano took the hearing off calendar and will leave the hearing off-calendar until the developers are ready and the hearing is re-noticed.
“There has been a lot of movement in the agreement as well as some of the provisions within,” Ponciano said. “We’ve had information going back and forth so it’s really tough to be able to get that to the public at the same time we are receiving it, so we are basically going to ask the applicant to get his act together and bring it back when he’s ready to present it.”
City Attorney Ryan Jones said the city has been talking with the developer and hopes to bring the agreement and the conditional use permit back to the City Council in a short period of time.
Neighbors to the proposed project have been largely critical of both the housing and the cannabis project, largely because of drainage issues and water seepage from the levee.
Nancy Garr, who lives at the end of East Clay Street, said the CEQA document prepared for the project in 2019 used a FEMA flood designation that is proposed to change the property to a special flood hazard zone where flood risks are very high.
“The update to the FEMA mapping brings to light the inadequacy of the assessment on hydrology based upon outdated or inaccurate science, which would lead to a failure of engineering designs to be able to adequately compensate for hydrologic issues within the project footprint,” Garr said.
Others believe that any potential hazards could be properly mitigated at the design and engineering stage, and that some people are simply trying to stop the project.
“First we denied them housing; then we denied them apartments,” said Colusa resident Craig Hill. “Now we are denying them cannabis. I think the neighbors don’t want anything. They want a nice open field and that’s not realistic to the guy who bought it. He has land use rights. He paid over $1 million and it just keeps coming back. Nobody wants anything and I don’t think that is quite fair.”
The Triple Crown Cannabis Business Park has been in the works for a number of years, after Olivas dropped his plans to build Riverbend Estates to go into the marijuana business.
The proposed project would involve the construction of approximately 1.5 million sq.ft. of developed facilities, including energy-efficient greenhouses for marijuana cultivation, warehouse, multi-story office and research buildings, storage areas, and paved parking lots. ■