HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html City Retreats On Pot Shops 
Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jan 2011
Source: Santa Barbara Independent, The (CA)
Copyright: 2011 The Santa Barbara Independent, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.independent.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4348
Author: Nick Welsh
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

CITY RETREATS ON POT SHOPS

Maximum Number of Dispensaries Allowed May Increase

In the face of almost certain defeat in federal court, Santa Barbara 
City Attorney Steve Wiley beat a quick retreat and urged the City 
Council's Ordinance Committee to bestow legal status on two medical 
marijuana dispensaries deemed outside the scope of the city's pot 
shop ordinance passed by the council last summer. If adopted by the 
entire council, this change would effectively increase the city's 
maximum number of dispensaries from three to five.

Owners of the Green Well dispensary at 500 North Milpas Street and of 
the Green Light dispensary at 631 Olive Street sued City Hall, 
charging the council changed the rules upon which they relied - and 
invested hundreds of thousands of dollars - by passing a new 
ordinance last summer that effectively nullified the permits they 
obtained under the terms and conditions of the previous dispensary 
ordinance. Late last year, a federal judge ruled the two pot shops' 
owners stood a strong chance of prevailing at trial and issued an 
injunction barring City Hall from closing the two dispensaries down. 
The judge cited the amount of money the owners had spent and found 
the six-month grace period the new ordinance allowed them to find new 
digs legally insufficient. Wiley got support from the three members 
of the Ordinance Committee to allow the two dispensaries to continue 
operating indefinitely, but as legal nonconforming uses.

Councilmember Grant House sought to include language that would 
extinguish the legal dispute between City Hall and the city's oldest 
dispensary - Compassion Center at 2915 De la Vina Street - but in the 
face of Wiley's strenuous opposition, House could find no allies. 
Wiley has ordered the Compassion Center closed on the grounds that it 
had gone out of business for more than 30 days since opening 11 years 
ago. This fact, he said, denied the De la Vina operation the legal 
standing needed to apply for a city permit. Compassion Center owner 
Patrick Fourmey insisted he never went out of business and claims he 
has the evidence to prove it. The matter is slated to go to trial.
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