Sorry about the short notice, but we were not notified until this afternoon. The Sonoma (City) Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Thursday, April 11 (tomorrow) regarding how the city should approach regulating cannabis businesses. The public hearing will take place in 2 parts, the second will occur on May 9. Both will be held at the City Council Chambers, 177 First Street West, starting at 6:30 PM.

You can see the Agenda here: https://sonomacity.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Id=416.

The Planning Commission Staff recommends the following procedure for this hearing:

Open the Public Hearing, receive public testimony, and continue Hearing to Planning Commission meeting on May 9, 2019.

Recommended Hearing Process:

1.Open Public Hearing
2.Receive staff report and Power-point Presentation by HdL. (This should be the same one that was presented to the City Council last month)
3.Questions from the Planning Commission.
4.Public Testimony.
5.Additional Commission Deliberation
6.Continue public hearing to May 9, 2019.

So, the process continues and once the Planning Commission has given its input, there could be a first reading of the ordinance on June 3, 2019, and a second reading on June 10, 2019. We encourage you to please come to these meetings to show your support!

SVCG has also sent an email to the Planning Commission urging its support:

To: Sonoma Planning Commission and Staff:

On behalf of the 200 members of the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group and the residents of Sonoma and its surrounding communities who support medical and personal access to cannabis, we thank the Planning Commission for moving forward on this issue.

As of April 9, 2019, the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group’s petition for a cannabis dispensary with delivery service has garnered 417 signatures. The petition text can be seen at

https://www.change.org/p/sonoma-valley-cannabis-group-establish-a-medicinal-cannabis-dispensary-with-delivery-in-the-city-of-sonoma-ca

Comments were submitted by nearly 50 of those petition signers and they can be seen here:

http://www.sonomavalleycannabisgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/petition_letter_and_comments_for_dispensary_9-9-18.pdf

The City Council also received well over 40 emails from Sonoma area citizens who support a local dispensary and we provided a copy of those emails to the Planning Commission in our email to it on 9/11/18.

In light of the above, we ask the Planning Commission to support the City Council’s proposed regulations to allow certain commercial cannabis businesses within the City.

As always, the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group is ready and willing to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Gil Latimer

Ken Brown

and the members of the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group
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Hope to see you at the meeting and Thanks!