Planning Department releases list of pot growers

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A list of nearly 1,000 applicants to be legal cannabis growers in Calaveras County was released Wednesday by the Calaveras County Planning Department.

The commercial farm registrants include the names of a number of prominent county residents. A cursory review of the records found that the registrants include former county Supervisor Tom Tryon of Angels Camp, Calaveras County Water District Board Chairman Terrance Strange, wealth management business owner Cory Burnell of Valley Springs, West Point News Publisher Richard Torgerson, rancher Tammy Ham of San Andreas and commercial real estate owners Jake and Donna Koplen of San Andreas.

“This is a snapshot in time as of last Friday,” said Planning Director Peter Maurer on Thursday. “We’re going to update this list every week.

Information for nearly 740 commercial growers is detailed and provides names of the farmers, the name of the farm or business, whether the business is conducted as an indoor operation or is mixed-light or outdoor, addresses, county parcel numbers, zoning designation, and the size of the grow canopy.

Information for all personal and most caregiver growers, who are not commercial operations, is limited to zoning, city, zip code, light source and canopy size. The Planning Department did list names and addresses for some caregivers, but did not indicate why it listed some caregivers but not the vast majority.

So far, only two commercial growers have been certified, legally registered under the county’s urgency ordinance, after the list was released on Friday. They are Mark Bolger of Rimrock Farms, Inc. on Oak Lane in Mountain Ranch, with a mixed-light operation producing 22,000 square feet of canopy, and Anthony Herrera of Pine Ridge Farms, Inc., on Pine Cone Way in Mountain Ranch, with a mixed-light operation producing 10,000 square feet of canopy.

The Calaveras Enterprise filed a Public Records Act request for the information in June. County representatives said they would release the requested material once the completed a database with the information. The complete list of applicants is also available on the Enterprise website at calavaersenterprise.com.

The release from the Planning Department lists five status levels for the farms: certified, verified, validated, pending and denied.

“Verified means we have reviewed all the paperwork that was submitted by the June 30 deadline and it all looks good,” said Maurer. “We’re waiting for more documentation. And validated means we’ve also looked at the documents required by Sept. 7 and are still waiting on a site inspection.”

So far, 27 applicants have been denied and at least 14 of those denials have been appealed to the Planning Commission for review. However, the commission has upheld every denial brought forward for review.

The county’s database of applicants for commercial cannabis farming permits can be found here