County of Riverside v. Stanger CA4/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Stangers Own the Property as Trustees and Lease It to James Parks The Stanger Family Trust owns an improved parcel of real property (the Property) in an unincorporated area of the County. The Stangers are trustees of The Stanger Family Trust, and they reside in Utah. According to the Stangers, since 2003 they have leased the Property to James C. Parks, who resides there. Parks states in his declarations that, among other things, he is a former Palm Springs Police Department reserve officer, the General Manager of the Salton Communities Service District, and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he has never used cannabis. B. The Events Leading Up to the Filing of the County’s Lawsuit This lawsuit arises from the undisputed fact that between August 2020 and April 2021, County officials twice observed the unlawful commercial cultivation of cannabis in greenhouses on the Property. Although County ordinances allow commercial cannabis cultivation under certain circumstances if the appropriate permits are obtained (Riverside County

2 Ordinance (RCO) No. 348.4898), no such permits existed with respect to the…