Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors are asking the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) for a moratorium on so-called “dark site” cannabis growing greenhouses in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
The motion, at the July 11 planning committee meeting, was informed in part by a recent change in provincial policy that has recast all cannabis production within the ALR as farm use.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) has since written to the province voicing the concerns that because many local governments weren’t aware of the change, it has resulted in “a three-month gap in which some forms of cannabis production may have been unregulated in terms of ALC oversight and local government land use regulation.”
Since the ALC would not be playing a vetting role, local governments are expected to shoulder the brunt of monitoring and enforcement, argued UBCM president Arjun Singh.
The SCRD’s Agricultural Advisory Committee recommended the SCRD ask the Ministry of Agriculture and ALC to “consider a moratorium on all non-soil bound licensed dark site cannabis production in the ALR” until local bylaws and regulations are in place.
The SCRD’s bylaws don’t include any regulations regarding dark site cannabis production.
All but one of the directors on the committee endorsed the recommendation.
Sechelt Director Darnelda Siegers voted against the motion, arguing she couldn’t support it “because it has no actual action to impact our concern.”
“I fully support this. It’s a little alarming that you can build a full cannabis facility using cement pads and everything on ALR land and the ALC can’t do anything about it,” said chair Lori Pratt.
Directors also voted on another motion based in part on a recent meeting between local governments and cannabis company Pasha Brands.
The motion calls for the SCRD to work with other regional districts to develop a framework for a legal cannabis industry on the Sunshine Coast, including the management of concrete “dark sites.”
