Landmark Pot Ruling Okays Class Action Suit vs. Carp Grower for "Nuisance Odor"

SB judge decides that litigation seeking damages for neighbors from cannabis greenhouse operation can proceed to trial

By Melinda Burns

In a case that could have broad implications for commercial cannabis growers, Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle ruled on Wednesday that the neighbors within a one-mile radius of Valley Crest Farms, a cannabis greenhouse operation in the Carpinteria Valley, can collectively seek damages for the pervasive smell of pot invading their properties.

The class action lawsuit against Valley Crest was filed in 2023 by the Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis, a countywide nonprofit citizens’ group; William Hahn and Danielle Dall’Armi, owners of the Rose Story Farm, a commercial rosebush operation next to Valley Crest; and Chonnie Bliss Jacobson, a neighbor who lives half a mile away.

A jury trial on the merits of the case has been scheduled for March 5, 2026 — if it is not settled before then.

Valley Crest, a nine-acre “grow” at 5890 Casitas Pass, has been harvesting cannabis every week for more than five years, the plaintiffs say.

In court documents, they seek relief from what they describe as the “awful smells and noxious odors and chemicals that they are being assaulted with on a daily basis in their homes.” The stench of cannabis, they allege, has lowered their property values, driven away their tenants, reduced their business incomes and interfered with “the quiet use and enjoyment of their property.”

Anderle’s ruling certifies the “class” or “community of interest” in the case as the homeowners within a one-mile radius of Valley Crest. To be eligible, they must have purchased their homes before Jan. 19, 2016. To claim damages, they must be able to show how the cannabis operation has affected their property values and “enjoyment of their property.”

Lionel Neff, a coalition board member, likened the ruling to “a rainbow at the end of a storm.” The coalition, he said, has been fighting for stiffer regulation of the cannabis industry for the past seven years.

“Now, it’s beyond a glimmer of hope,” Neff said. “It’s a realization that we have real progress. It’s a new day.”

In court documents, Valley Crest’s attorneys called the plaintiffs’ arguments for class action “wildly over-broad.” Patrick Toole, an attorney for Valley Crest, said Wednesday he did not know whether his client would appeal Anderle’s ruling.

The managing member of the Valley Crest Farms LLC is listed in state records as Philip Fagundes of Parlier, Calif.

Fagundes also is listed as the manager of Greenbrier Holdings LLC, an investment company with a cannabis manufacturing facility in Parlier. On its website, Greenbrier advertises “Premium Cannabis Grown in the Coastal Valley of Santa Barbara.” Fagundes comes from a dairy farming family that produces milk for Horizon Organic in the Central Valley.

A first for California. Wednesday’s ruling marks the first time that a California judge has certified a class action related to cannabis odor. Robert Curtis, an attorney for the coalition, called it a “landmark legal victory.”

“It’s monumental,” he said. “This ruling will send shockwaves throughout California’s cannabis industry, particularly in Carpinteria. 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.”

There may be as many as 100 homes within a one-mile radius of Valley Crest, Curtis said. Within 30 days, he said, he will present the judge with a list of residents who will get notices in the mail, telling them how they can participate in the class action lawsuit against Valley Crest, going forward.

Curtis said the plaintiffs chiefly want the greenhouses to be equipped with carbon filtration systems known as “scrubbers,” an expensive, state-of-the-art odor control technology that has been shown to get rid of most of the smell of pot before it can escape through the vents on a greenhouse roof.

Like most other cannabis operations in the Carpinteria Valley, Valley Crest is equipped only with a “vapor phase” or “misting” system that sets up a curtain of perfumed mist from perforated pipes on the greenhouse roofs. It is designed to neutralize the smell of pot after it escapes from the vents into the outside air.

But the Rose Story Farm plaintiffs said the ever-present spray had caused oils and chemicals to settle on their landscaping.

Curtis said all of the plaintiffs deserved to be compensated “for the misery they have had to live in since Valley Crest started operating its facility.” The owner, he said, could face much higher potential damages as a result of Wednesday’s ruling.

“The price of poker just went up,” Curtis said.

“Extraordinarily cumbersome.”At Wednesday’s hearing, Toole told Anderle that Valley Crest was in compliance with county odor control regulations. The county Board of Supervisors approved the project in 2022 with a “misting” system.

(Earlier this year, the board signaled that it wanted to require scrubbers and ban misting systems in all Carpinteria Valley cannabis greenhouse operations; the growers would have 12 months to comply. A board vote on the matter is set for March 18.)

“We are in compliance with current law,” Toole said. “ … We are a good neighbor in that regard.”

Toole also noted that Geosyntec, an engineering firm hired by the county, had performed a spot test for the smell of cannabis around the entire perimeter of Valley Crest in November of 2024 and found little to no odor there.

“There’s some argument here that Valley Crest has been recalcitrant or thumbing their nose” at the law, Toole said. “That is certainly not the case … The vapor system is effective in ameliorating the odor.”

Moreover, Toole said, at least nine other cannabis operations lie within a one-mile radius of Valley Crest; and many residents who live there are closer to those other operations than they are to Valley Crest.

“We certainly deny that we have caused any nuisance in this case,” Toole said.

In short, as summarized in court documents, the attorneys for Valley Crest argued that it would be “extraordinarily cumbersome and time-consuming” to define a “class” of people affected by Valley Crest.

(In 2023, in a rare instance of odor enforcement by the county, as noted in the coalition’s arguments in court, the Valley Crest owners were fined $3,000 for not installing a misting system around the outside perimeter of their cannabis processing building. This January, they again were fined, this time $1,500 for failing to plug in two scrubbers inside that building.)

“The gold standard.” In court papers, the plaintiffs said that the neighborhood surrounding the Rose Story Farm is filled with “a thick, heavy, strong stench of cannabis on a near daily basis.”

At or around sunrise, they said, hundreds of roof vents at the Valley Crest greenhouses are opened to let hot air escape. When that air rises, they said, so does the pungent smell of pot.

Explaining his class action certification, Anderle wrote that the “odor and particulate matter” from the greenhouse operation had “physically invaded each of the class members’ properties within a well-defined, reasonably small, perimeter.”

Valley Crest, he said, had failed to install scrubbers, claiming there was no guarantee they would resolve the complaints.

“Plaintiffs contend vigorously this is wrong and it appears to be so,” Anderle wrote, adding that carbon filtration systems “are the gold standard for odor abatement that has recently been mandated by the county Board of Supervisors …Valley Crest’s argument here only serves to underscore the need to certify Plaintiff’s class.”

Finally, class certification in the Valley Crest case would result in a “substantial saving in judicial time and litigation expense,” Anderle said.

Growers who settled. Since mid-2018, Carpinteria Valley residents have filed more than 3,900 odor complaints with the county. On the heels of Wednesday’s win, Curtis said, the coalition is considering suing the owners of other cannabis greenhouse operations in the valley.

Of 20 “grows” under cultivation on about 100 acres just outside the City of Carpinteria, only seven are equipped with “scrubbers.” Most growers have installed them in their processing buildings only.

Ceres Farm, a nine-acre cannabis operation at 6030 Casitas Pass Rd., next to Valley Crest, was also a defendant in the coalition’s 2023 lawsuit. But Case and Alex Van Wingerden, the Ceres owners, agreed to install scrubbers in their greenhouses; and they paid the plaintiffs an undisclosed sum in damages. (The Van Wingerdens are the landowners at both Ceres and Valley Crest.)

In 2020, the coalition and three Carpinterians filed a class action lawsuit against Ever-Bloom, an 11-acre cannabis greenhouse operation at 4701 Foothill. The owner, Ed Van Wingerden, settled the case in 2022 before there was a need to certify the “class.” At a cost of $2 million, he installed scrubbers; and he paid $235,000 to the plaintiffs.

Anderle’s ruling, Curtis said, could affect any grower who allows the smell of pot to travel beyond the property line of a cannabis operation.

“It opens the door for adjacent homeowners to come in collectively and sue that individual for damages,” he said.

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: Valley Crest Farms, cannabis greenhouse operation on Casitas Pass Road (Melinda Burns photo).