Two cannabis projects that generated stiff neighborhood opposition in the western Carpinteria Valley — a “grow” on Foothill Road that was in bankruptcy and a cannabis dispensary that never got off the ground on Santa Claus Lane — were quietly abandoned for good this fall.

Island Breeze Farms, a cannabis greenhouse operation at 3376 Foothill Road, and The Roots pot shop that was planned for 3823 Santa Claus Lane, represent the latest evidence of the boom-to-bust dynamic that has plagued the cannabis industry in Santa Barbara County since its inception, seven years ago.

Amid a glut of cannabis on the market in California — with illegal pot making up more than half of sales — legal growers, who must pay local and state taxes and regulatory costs, have found it harder to survive.

“My observation is that cannabis is not the financial benefit that the various owners undertook to be a part of, because the process that the county established is costly and time consuming,” said county Planning Commissioner Mike Cooney, who represents the valley.

Enforcement: Sheriff’s cannabis team disbanded

New owner at Island Breeze

On Sept. 30, Island Breeze was sold to Shane Brown, a Montecito businessman who wants nothing to do with pot. He plans to convert the property into a tree nursery.

“I’m very adamant against cannabis in the valley,” Brown said. “I’m not a believer, and it’s deep-seated. I grew up with parents who smoked pot, and that didn’t help me at all in my childhood. My parents were poor and spent their money on pot instead of their kids.”

County records show Brown purchased the Island View Ranch for $6 million; the nine-acre property includes two acres of former Island Breeze greenhouses. Lois Von Morganroth of Ventura and Robyn Whatley of Thousand Oaks, the previous Island View owners and the owners and operators of Island Breeze, had declared bankruptcy in December 2024. By then, the “grow” had been shut down for months.

Brown said that instead of cannabis, he plans to sell olive trees that are 50 to 150 years old, along with oak trees, fire pits and other garden materials. In the meantime, he’s looking for a buyer for the industrial equipment that Island Breeze left behind.

Brown owns The Well home and garden stores in Montecito and Summerland, and Big Daddy Antiques in Los Angeles. He said he may name his new business The Well Nursery: it will be similar to The Well stores, he said, but on a larger scale.

“I want to create beauty in the world,” Brown said.

(The Island View Nursery, a former tenant on the property, has moved its succulents, cacti, houseplants, shrubs and garden art to 3675 Foothill, where it is open to the public.)

Roots permit expires

In addition to Island Breeze, the plug has been officially pulled on plans for The Roots pot shop on Santa Claus Lane.

Pat and Maire Radis — in partnership with The Roots, a company that founded a dispensary in Lompoc in 2018 — had applied for a county business license to operate a cannabis storefront in their building on Santa Claus.

It would have been the first dispensary on the beachside business strip. But in spring of this year, they withdrew their application.

The Radises had been granted a zoning permit by the county Board of Supervisors in 2022; and in 2023, the state Coastal Commission green-lighted the project. That zoning permit formally expired Oct. 12 because the business had yet to secure a final occupancy building permit, county officials said.

Government: County cuts budget, raises fees as cannabis costs again exceed revenues

‘We never gave up’

For years, the homeowners’ association at the Polo Condos, a 130-unit luxury complex of about 300 people living across the street from Island Breeze at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, had urged the county to shut down the operation and deny the owners a zoning permit. They said the “skunky” smell of pot was wafting into their homes at all hours, driving them indoors on summer days with the windows closed and triggering migraine headaches, nausea, sore throats and respiratory problems.

Mark Brickley, a former association board member, has lost count of all the calls, community meetings and email exchanges that he and other board members and their neighbors on Foothill had for more than five years with county officials, including former county Supervisor Das Williams, a co-architect of the county’s cannabis ordinance of 2018, begging them to shut down Island Breeze.

Williams, a veteran politician, narrowly lost his seat in 2024, in part because of the opposition to cannabis in Carpinteria, his hometown. As former flower greenhouses were converted to pot, the valley became a mecca for commercial marijuana just outside the boundaries of the small beach town.

“We never gave up!” Brickley said. “Maybe that’s the lesson of our opposition to the county allowing a cannabis grower within 50 feet of our condominium complex. While it was a very frustrating and long process, I’m just really happy there were enough people who stuck with it.”

Residents filed dozens if not scores of odor complaints that the county never addressed, Brickley said, until, out of frustration, people stopped filing altogether. There are two much larger cannabis greenhouses operations on Foothill within a quarter mile of the condos, and it was impossible to prove which of the three operations was to blame for the smell.

Under the county’s rules, growers who signed an affidavit stating that they had been growing medical marijuana before Jan. 16, 2016, were allowed to expand their commercial operations without zoning permits, so long as they applied for them. In this way, Island Breeze and most other cannabis greenhouse operations in the valley were designated “legal, non-conforming” operations. The Polo Condos board members hired a lawyer to help them contest the Island Breeze affidavit, but that effort went nowhere.

In 2021, in a rare move against a grower, the county sued Island Breeze, alleging that the owners had not “diligently pursued” a permit and were engaging in “unfair competition” by operating without one. Then, in 2023, the director of county Planning & Development issued an over-the counter permit to Island Breeze. The county later withdrew its lawsuit without explanation, after a settlement agreement was reached.

In fall 2024, the condo association successfully appealed to the county Planning Commission to overturn the permit, which would have allowed Island Breeze to expand operations from about five greenhouses to all of its 13 greenhouses, more than doubling past production. Island Breeze appealed to the Board of Supervisors to reverse the decision, but soon filed for bankruptcy.

On Oct. 2, Brown, the new owner, formally withdrew both the Island Breeze zoning permit application and the appeal to the board.

“Of course, we’re happy,” added Robyn Geddes, the association president. “Everybody’s relieved that it’s not going to be one of these hideous industrial operations that’s going to stink up the place. It’s a special section of Carpinteria and we’d like to keep it as rural as possible.”

No pot shop in the valley?

On the South Coast, the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta allow pot shops, but they are not allowed in the city of Carpinteria.

Unincorporated Isla Vista has a dispensary, and one is pending in the eastern Goleta Valley. In the unincorporated North County, Santa Ynez and Orcutt each have a dispensary, and one is pending in Los Alamos. The City of Lompoc allows pot shops, but Santa Maria does not.

Next on the county’s waiting list for a pot shop in the unincorporated Carpinteria Valley was Haven XV, a company that had proposed to install a storefront at 3825 Santa Claus Lane. But Haven XV has declined to pursue its application, county officials said.

Back in 2022, more than 200 people signed a petition against plans for The Roots on Santa Claus Lane. Steve Kent, president of the Santa Claus Lane property owners’ association, and members of the Padaro Lane, Sandyland and Polo Condos homeowners’ associations, said a dispensary would exacerbate traffic congestion and was incompatible with two nearby surf camps serving children.

Supporters of The Roots proposal said a dispensary would be an “economic shot in the arm” for Santa Claus Lane businesses in the off-season; and would provide a safe and convenient place for customers to buy legal pot, including medical marijuana.

The Board of Supervisors will decide next year whether to reopen the application period for a dispensary in Summerland or the western Carpinteria Valley.

Melinda Burns, a former senior writer for the legacy Santa Barbara News-Press, is an investigative reporter with 40 years of experience covering immigration, water, science and the environment.