
It’s cannabis growing season once again in Mendocino County. Local and state cannabis regulators continue to point to unlicensed grows as a persistent problem, citing neighborhood complaints and market saturation that drives prices so low licensed cultivators struggle to stay afloat.
In 2023, a failed attempt to ban even licensed grows through zoning changes in Redwood Valley underscored the tensions. Today, the presence of new hoophouses—plastic-covered greenhouse structures commonly used for cultivation—still raises suspicion in some neighborhoods.
Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to determine whether a cannabis grow near you is licensed with the county.

The Mendocino County Cannabis Department provides a publicly accessible database called Accela, which tracks registered grows. You don’t need to be a cannabis applicant to use it—anyone can create an account. Once logged in, you can search by applicant name, property address, or license type.
If navigating the system proves difficult, you can also call the Mendocino County Cannabis Department directly at (707) 234-6680 to ask whether a specific property is in the licensing program.
As an example, a recent Accela search using only “Redwood Valley” as the search parameter returned 98 grows registered with the county. It may take a few tries to get results. Restarting your computer after registering can sometimes help.
Cannabis cultivators who construct hoophouses—also called greenhouses—must also obtain building permits. However, not all hoophouses are used for cannabis; many are for vegetables or flowers. To check for building permits, use the eTRAKiT database, also managed by the county. Like Accela, it’s open to the public and searchable by address after creating an account.
Both databases use strict naming conventions. For instance, typing “123 Example Road” may yield no results if the system prefers “Rd” instead of “Road.” Try entering only the street number and name (e.g., “123 Example”) to improve your chances.
Keep in mind that small personal medical grows may be exempt from licensing if they meet certain requirements and the grower holds a valid medical cannabis card. Those details are outlined in the Mendocino County Cannabis Ordinance.
In short, there’s no need to wonder whether the hoophouse down the road is part of the legal cannabis industry. With a little digging, the public tools are there to find out.
A key detail about the Redwood Valley prohibition overlay petition is missing here. Supervisors denied the petition but sent code enforcement to the proposed mapped prohibition area. They found that 1/2 the parcels were growing without licenses and those same people had signed the petition to ban LEGAL growers! The people of Redwood Valley didn’t care about weed they just didn’t want a particular type of legal grower there. Still, the problem isn’t your neighbors with a small hoop it’s the huge grows in the boonies that trash the land and have dozens of hoops on illegally cleared hillsides. The problem is that legal growers have huge barriers to getting legal and getting to market. The regulations are as strict as building a winery not planting a vineyard. Agriculture comes with land rights in this county but cannabis is considered a project not agriculture. The county made people get building permits for hoops because they thought that would stop cannabis growers from building more of them and make it easier to get code enforcement involved. That means the coastal people who want tomatoes and cucumbers are subject to code enforcement over a basic hoop house. Everybody knows who’s sketchy in their neighborhood. People who look up stuff online are called Karens. It’s pretty simple.
Road D is funny to watch, many grows went bankrupt. Now new people (growers) are going to try to make some money. They will most likely lose also. The good old days and just that old.
Ed Rooney is still “Puffing Tough “ though
Ill tell ya how to know if they’re legal out not…find out the property owner and whether or not they are related to law enforcement or county parasites. Those are the ones that are legal.
It’s hilarious that the traditional market is blamed for the market crash! The black market cannabis is a drop in the bucket now. With places like glasshouse that produce 250,000 lbs quarterly and the new indoor facility in la ” worlds largest indoor facility ” that will be putting out 30,000 lbs a month! It’s a joke that the black market is to blame. I know for a fact that most if not all legal farms push most the product out the back door. There is no way the black market could even make a dent with these places flooding the market! Everyone needs to put the blame where it belongs. 95% of the black market cultivators in mendo and humboldt are out of the game!!! Wake up and open your eyes. Prop 64 destroyed our way of life, community, industry, I am tired of hearing about the “black market ” ruining the industry, that is COMPLETE bull@^÷+p!!!!!! Our government and and big money ruined it get it straight people.