The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation is in the midst of scheduling the mandatory settlement conference that must take place in all California Environmental Quality Act cases in relation to their lawsuit to challenge Yolo County’s Cannabis Land Use Ordinance.
The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation partnered with the Yolo County Farm Bureau, Sierra Club and the citizen’s group Voices for Responsible Leadership in a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Yolo County Community Services.
On Sept. 14, following a lengthy deliberation process over the span of several years, supervisors unanimously approved and adopted the Cannabis Land Use Ordinance (CLUO) and certified the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the ordinance. One month later, on Oct. 14, the CLUO went into effect.
According to a press release from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation that was distributed the day the CLUO went into effect, the CLUO violates the California Environmental Quality Act and conflicts with the Williamson Act. The lawsuit is seeking to block implementation until its challenges are corrected.
Both the lawsuit and the press release emphasized that the tribe does not object to the legal cultivation of cannabis, nor does it seek to block county residents from profiting from the cannabis industry but rather takes issue with the final ordinance as written.
“The cannabis industry has a place in Yolo County, just as cannabis has a place in the medicine cabinets of many people in California,” the Tribal Council of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation stated in the press release. “But sensible cannabis permitting can’t happen until the county is clear-eyed about the problems overconcentration creates, especially in sensitive areas around schools, near cultural heritage sites and in smaller communities like those in the Capay Valley.”
Read more at https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2021/12/04/yocha-dehe-wintun-nation-challenges-yolo-county-cannabis-ordinance/
