(A) Compliance with laws. It is unlawful and shall constitute a public nuisance for anyone to engage in any commercial and/or research hemp activity within the county without complying with all applicable state, federal, and local laws and regulations pertaining to hemp entities, including the duty to register the hemp entity with the County Agricultural Commissioner.
(B) Persons prohibited from registering under this chapter. The persons set forth in § 7.04.005(B) shall be prohibited from registering a hemp entity in the county.
(C) Hemp exclusion zone. No hemp cultivation, drying, processing, or storage shall be conducted or permitted within one mile of the sphere of influence boundary of the Cities of Hollister or San Juan Bautista, or the exterior boundaries of any County Service Area and the Tres Pinos Water District. No hemp cultivation, drying, processing or storage shall be conducted within one mile of any permitted visitor-serving wine or hospitality site (for example, tasting room, winery with tours, restaurant, hotel, bed and breakfast) located within the San Benito Wine/Hospitality Priority Area, as identified in the 2035 San Benito County General Plan, Figure 3-4, page 3-19. No hemp cultivation may be conducted within 500 feet of any public road (county road or state highway) unless road frontage of the cultivation area is fenced with a six-foot high fence that provides a visual barrier or includes a six-foot high perennial vegetative visual buffer at least six feet wide, in which case, the distance to a public road may be reduced to 100 feet. Outdoor hemp cultivation shall only be conducted within areas of the unincorporated county that are zoned Agriculture Production (AP) or Agricultural Rangeland (AR).
(D) Hemp research entity hemp activities prohibition. All hemp activities including, but not limited to cultivation, harvesting, processing, storage, research, or testing conducted by any established agricultural research institution or hemp research entity, as defined herein, are prohibited within the County of San Benito.
(Ord. 989, § 1, 2019; Ord. 1,003, § 2, 2020; Ord. 1,005, § 2, 2020)