CARPINTERIA, Calif. – On Wednesday, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge certified a class action lawsuit from local homeowners against a Carpinteria-based cannabis growers to move to trial.

The ruling is a notable shift in the grounds available for class action lawsuits brought against growers and could impact grows statewide.

“This ruling will send shockwaves throughout California’s cannabis industry, particularly in Carpinteria,” said Robert A. Curtis, lead trial attorney and partner at Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, LLP. “For too long, cannabis growers have profited off the cultivation of marijuana while thumbing their noses at their obligation to control the foul odors their operations produce. This case is about holding them accountable and ensuring that impacted neighborhoods have a voice.”

The class action lawsuit, brought by residential property owners living within one mile of cannabis growing operations along Casitas Pass Road, seeks damages for “the persistent and pervasive cannabis odors” coming from the crops growing along Casitas Pass Road.

The image below, from the class action lawsuit, shows how close some of the plaintiff’s homes are to large cannabis grows. The thin yellow line is about 0.08 miles detailed the ruler pop up in the image.

During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle dimissed arguments presented by cannabis growers including that the odor and nuisance claims do apply to all members of the suit, allowing a unified legal claim to proceed, and that some grower’s continued defiance of County requirements to install carbon filtration systems strengthened the need for a certification of a class action suit detailed the law firm appointed by the court to represent all the members of the suit.

According to attorneys for the Carpinteria homeowners involved in the class action suit, the initial hearing date for their claims is currently scheduled for March 5, 2026.

“The upcoming trial will demonstrate, once and for all, that no longer should the people of Carpinteria suffer under the stench of cannabis invading their homes and devaluing their properties,” added Curtis. “This is about justice, accountability, and reclaiming the right to live in a clean and odor-free community.”

Your News Channel reached out to the attorney’s listed in court documents as representation for the listed defendants as well an attonrey listed as a contact for Fresno-based Valley Crest Farms LLC. – one of the companies mentioned as a defendant in the class action suit – according to the California Secretary of State’s Registry input for the cannabis grower and are awaiting responses.