Controversial pot shop blocked from opening in Mar Vista

City Atty. Mike Feuer’s office has secured permanent injunctions that prohibit a controversial medical marijuana business from opening in Mar Vista.

The injunctions, issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant in January, followed an outcry from Mar Vista residents and a strongly worded warning from Councilman Mike Bonin, who called plans to open a pot shot a “slap in the face to residents”

The dispensary was to open in the 3400 block of South Centinela Avenua, a commercially zoned space formerly home to a Mrs. Gooch’s market. But the space is surrounded by houses and apartments on land zoned for residential use.

Feuer’s office said the permanent injunctions demonstrate the city attorney’s commitment to enforce Proposition D, which voters passed last spring to limit the number of dispensaries and forbid them to operate near homes, schools or parks.

“Our city attorney really knows how to get things done,” Bonin said in a statement. “I am incredibly grateful for City Atty. Feuer, his hard-working staff and the many, many members of the Mar Vista community who spoke out to protect our neighborhood from an obviously illegal marijuana dispensary.”

At a community meeting in October, residents demanded that city officials keep the dispensary out of their neighborhood. Though many said they did not oppose medical marijuana, they warned of traffic effects, drug users, robbers and declines in the price of real estate.

In a letter sent to the marijuana dispensary operator in October, Bonin warned the operator to “drop your plans, or meet stiff opposition.”

Feuer’s office filed a complaint in November, asking the court to block the business from opening and to assess fines on operators each day they were found to be in violation of the law.

More than 60 criminal cases have been filed against pot dispensary operators and property owners throughout Los Angeles, Feuer’s office said in its statement.