It was this week that California’s Palm Springs City Council made it a lot harder for marijuana businesses in the area.
The Council has approved a “zero-tolerance” policy that seeks to assuage resident concerns about wafting odors generated by cannabis cultivation businesses.
The council additionally implemented changes to city zoning code that would centralize cannabis cultivation to a partly undeveloped stretch of the Interstate 10 corridor.
The changes had been approved simultaneously in a 4-0 vote with Councilwoman Christy Holstege recusing herself, citing a conflict of interest involving her spouse’s business interests.
Mayor Pro Tem Geoff Kors remarked, “No one, whether you live across the street or three miles away, should be subject to cannabis odor where you live. That has to stop.”
Not all were happy with the vote.
Jocelyn Kane, who handles government affairs for the Coachella Valley Cannabis Alliance Network, has said, “You will be hobbling a nascent industry, reducing the city’s ability to earn valuable tax money and eliminate good paying jobs for local residents.”
