Carp Neighbors Win New Delay Against SB Cannabis Kingpin
Pot magnate Graham Farrar's new processing project would be state-of-the-art but what the smell from his greenhouses?
By Melinda Burns
One of the most contentious projects in the Carpinteria Valley — a proposed 25,400 square-foot processing building for a cannabis greenhouse operation that has generated hundreds of foul odor complaints — has been delayed again, this time during design review.
The building is proposed by Graham Farrar, a co-owner of G&K Produce and K&G Flowers, eight acres of cannabis greenhouses at 3561 Foothill Road. Back in 2019, these were the first commercial cannabis operations to be granted a zoning permit in the valley.
Farrar is co-founder and president of Glass House Brands, a vertically integrated company based in Long Beach, Calif.
In addition to its greenhouses in the Carpinteria Valley, Glass House owns what Farrar has called the largest single cannabis greenhouse operation in the United States — 115 acres in Camarillo, more than half of which were under cultivation last year. Kyle Kazan, a California real estate investor and venture capitalist, co-founded the businesses with Farrar and serves as chairman and CEO.
Glass House also owns a large cannabis manufacturing lab in Lompoc and 10 cannabis dispensaries in California, including one in Santa Barbara, one in Isla Vista and one in Santa Ynez. Last November, the GlobeNewswire reported that Glass House earned $64 million in net revenue during the third quarter of 2024, a 32 percent increase over the third quarter of 2023.
Over the years, individual members of Concerned Carpinterians, a citizens’ group that favors tougher regulation of the cannabis industry, filed five appeals to try to overturn the permits for Farrar’s greenhouse operation and processing building. They took their cause all the way up to the state Coastal Commission, and they lost every step of the way.
On Feb. 5, the county Planning Commission heard a sixth appeal by a member of the group.
Jill Stassinos, a teacher and 34-year resident of Carpinteria, asked the planners to overturn the county Board of Architectural Review’s preliminary approval of the height, color, design and landscaping of Farrar’s proposed processing building. On a 3-to-2 vote, the commission continued the matter to March 5 for further review.
“Difficult to breathe.” Stassinos told the commission that the proposed processing building was too large and would make the operation too dense for the site.
But she had another message, too: Echoing residents’ pleas from previous appeals, Stassinos said Farrar should be required to clean up the smell of pot from his greenhouses before he was allowed to expand operations with a processing building.
Residents have filed more than 900 odor complaints with the county against G&K since the fall of 2019, Stassinos said, including 595 filed by one homeowner on Paquita Drive, off La Mirada Drive, a foothill community less than half a mile from G&K. Stassinos said she herself had filed at least 100 complaints.
“Almost every time I drive by that location, I have to roll up my car windows because the stench makes it difficult for me to breathe,” she said.
The “foul odors” from Farrar’s greenhouses have caused residents to complain of “migraine headaches, runny eyes, allergies, nausea, dizziness and difficulty breathing,” Stassinos said. In addition to La Mirada, she said, residents on Padaro Lane, a mile to the south; and at the Polo Condos, 750 feet to the northwest on Foothill, have been affected by the smell.
“How can Mr. Farrar be trusted to be a good neighbor … when 3561 Foothill Road has so many odor complaints? Stassinos asked.
Farrar did not speak at the Feb. 5 hearing or respond to a reporter’s request for comment last week.
Previously, he has said he chose 3561 Foothill for a cannabis operation because the property was not located near homes or schools: it’s bounded on three sides by greenhouses, orchards and other land zoned for agriculture.
To date, the county has been unable to verify or enforce residents’ odor complaints: there are two other cannabis greenhouses in the vicinity of G&K, and there has been no way to prove which of them is to blame for the smell.
Under a new Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors proposal, all cannabis growers in the valley, including Farrar, would have 12 months to install advanced carbon filters called “scrubbers” inside their greenhouses to get rid of the smell of pot. The commission is set to vote on the proposal at a special hearing on Feb. 19.
Last year, Farrar installed some advanced scrubbers at Glass House Farms, a three-acre cannabis greenhouse operation that he co-owns at 5601 Casitas Pass Road in the valley.
Airtight building. County records show that of 20 active cannabis greenhouse operations ringing the city of Carpinteria, 13 are processing marijuana onsite, in buildings that were constructed decades ago, for Gerber daisies and other cut flowers.
In contrast, Farrar would be the first to construct a processing building from the ground up with state-of-the-art odor control.
It would be one of the largest in the valley. Like the others, it would be outfitted with carbon filters to reduce the smell; but it would also have “air curtains” and a negative pressure ventilation system, ensuring that when the doors are opened, the air flows in, not out. The drying, trimming and packaging of marijuana is one of the smelliest stages of cannabis production.
According to a county staff report on the project, the new building would be 21 feet high — about two feet lower than the five existing greenhouses at G&K and K&G. It would be located at the rear of the 15-acre property and would not be visible from Foothill or Via Real. Taken together, the greenhouses and the processing building would cover 63 percent of the parcel, just under the maximum 65 percent allowed under agricultural zoning rules.
Anna Carrillo of Concerned Carpinterians told the commissioners that the landscaping on Foothill Road did not provide adequate coverage for the greenhouses. But Jay Higgins, Farrar’s agent, said the trees had been replaced nine months ago and were now healthy and growing.
During a June 2021 hearing in which the commission approved a zoning permit for Farrar’s processing building, Commissioner Mike Cooney, who represents the valley, praised the project, saying it would “set a high standard for future processing plants … We could hardly do better.”
Das-Graham connection. But the mood on the county Board of Supervisors has shifted this year. Supervisor Roy Lee of Carpinteria now represents the valley: he campaigned on the issue of stricter regulation for the cannabis industry, and defeated Das Williams, the lead author of the county’s controversial cannabis ordinance, who was close to Farrar and his hired lobbyists.
Last week, Cooney asked the county planning staff to provide more information on the “complicated history” of Farrar’s processing plant in light of past zoning changes and development plan amendments. He asked for a continuance for further design review, and commissioners John Parke and Vincent Martinez said they would defer to his request.
“There might be something that was missed, something that wasn’t completed,” Cooney said.
Chair Laura Bridley and Commissioner Roy Reed voted against any further delays, saying that the building met design review standards.
“I have a great deal of sympathy with the concerns of the community with respect to the odor,” Reed said. “But it’s an appeal on the design, size and compatibility of the structure.”
In the Carpinteria Valley, Farrar is currently processing cannabis at his “grow” at 5601 Casitas Pass Road. He has said that if his processing building goes forward, he would switch all of his processing in the valley to 3561 Foothill.
Melinda Burns is an investigative journalist with 40 years of experience covering immigration, water, science and the environment. As a community service, she offers her reports to multiple publications in Santa Barbara County, at the same time, for free.
Image: Graham Farrar (Melinda Burns photo).