Eventually, the city hopes to whittle the number of pot shops down to 70 and to limit outlets to industrial areas. By some estimates, as many as 1,000 dispensaries were in operation last summer.
Dispensaries that opened before the city declared a moratorium on Nov. 13, 2007, will be allowed to stay open but, within six months, they will have to comply with the ordinance, which has a strict zoning component.
City prosecutors have yet to say how they plan to enforce the ordinance, but fines for violating it could run as high as $2,500 per day.
Under a statewide proposition approved by voters in 1996, collectives and nonprofit groups can sell small amounts of marijuana to people with notes from physicians. The dispensaries are supposed to be nonprofit, although they are allowed to pay salaries and recoup other expenses.
On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant rejected a request by dispensaries and patients for a restraining order preventing the ordinance from taking effect. The judge noted that the city ordinance would not prevent patients from obtaining medical marijuana.
The City Attorney's Office sent letters last month to the operators of about 400 dispensaries, ordering them to close by Monday.
The dispensaries allowed to stay open are required to file a notice of intent to register with the City Clerk's Office and will be put on a priority list.
City staffers will then inspect them to ensure they are at least 1,000 feet away from schools, public parks, public libraries and religious institutions, or another pot dispensary.
If two dispensaries are within 1,000 feet of each other, the City Clerk's Office will use the priority list to determine which one can stay open.
The ordinance bars dispensaries from being "on a lot abutting, across the street or alley from, or having a common corner with a residentially zoned lot or a lot improved with residential use.
Source: The Los Angeles Independent
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