dannno
12-18-2013, 02:34 PM
Pot Shop Calls It Quits in Lawsuit with City Hall
Green Well Dispensary Gets $75,000 to Offset Legal Costs
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
By Nick Welsh
In its ongoing legal battle with Green Well medical marijuana dispensary — formerly located at 500 North Milpas Street — Santa Barbara City Hall appears to have dodged what could have been a damaging bullet. Several weeks ago, dispensary owners agreed to call it quits in exchange for $75,000 to help defray legal expenses accrued while trying to fight City Hall. The terms of the agreement were surprising given that Green Well owners spent nearly $300,000 in legal fees and initially appeared to have an ironclad case.
The Green Well opened for business in January 2010 after reportedly spending $400,000 and nine months securing all the necessary city permits to legally open shop. In addition, Green Well’s owners at the time — James Lee and Nate Reinke — bent over backward to ingratiate themselves with the community, leading cleanup drives and donating to the neighborhood clinics. But in response to growing opposition to storefront marijuana dispensaries, the City Council voted to change the rules of the game and, in so doing, effectively put Green Well out of business. When Green Well was first approved, city regulations required dispensaries to be 500 feet from the nearest school. The dispensary, located 532 feet from Santa Barbara Junior High, complied. But the new language required a separation of at least 600 feet.
Initially, City Hall offered the owners — who have since parted ways — a 180-day grace period, but in the face of intense skepticism by the judge reviewing the case, expanded that to a four-year phaseout period. Whether that would be sufficient to inoculate City Hall from legal attack became moot last May when officials with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Justice Department called a meeting with property owners renting space to Santa Barbara’s dispensaries and threatened them with legal action if they did not evict their tenants. To show they were serious, federal officials initiated legal actions to seize the property of three dispensary landlords. Law enforcement officials refer to this event as “The Great Shutdown,” and almost overnight, Santa Barbara’s once flourishing dispensary scene disappeared.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/18/pot-shop-calls-it-quits-lawsuit-city-hall/
Comments (poster foofighter is presumed by some to be our local Republican Committee Chairman)
Good riddance.
-foofighter
Yes, I feel so much safer now. Don't you?
-John_Adams
foo, it's amazing you can spout a certain kind of economic freedom out of the one side of your mouth with economic tyranny coming right out the other..
-loonpt
Good ole business-friendly Santa Babylon...well...if you are a tourist-oriented business or a bar of some kind...yeah, SB is a great place to be. Everyone else get the heck out...and if ya don't do as you're told, the powers that be will just outspend you and push you out anyway.
SB is so worried about pot shops...but bars...yeah...more bars...yup...SB needs more bars.
The hypocrisy boggles.
-Holly
loonpit, you need to stop labeling others by your own stereotypes. It causes your brain to implode. Be more flexible in your outlook on life, people and peruse your own deep authenticity for yourself alone. Which means you may have to lay off the pot for while.
-foofighter
city hall and dea.... hand in hand to make the streets safe for Mexican drug cartels! at least it's more exiting to hear reports on guns and smack!
-touristunfriendly
Take note of the tax windfalls accruing to state government entities due to increasing property values.
Making communities safe, clean and productive benefits everyone because this is an excellent property value enhancement and provides one of the best returns on investment on every level. The more property taxes taken in, the more real money for schools.
Letting communities degrade, get blighted, destroy retail and divert more property off the tax rolls makes a community sicken and die. SB will lose out on this current upturn in property taxes, because it has already taken too much of its real estate out the free market. Oh well.
Goleta and the county will do well; but Santa Barbara will not. Thank you city council members for shooting this city in the foot with your social utopian agenda that helped no one and has harmed many.
-foofighter
You're such a central planner, foo..
-loonpt
Label me somewhere between a libertarian and a social utopian, loon pit. At any given time, issue or position.
-foofighter
The spokesperson for prohibition in this thread adequately illustrates the insanity, avarice and delusion fueling that effort.
-Ken_Volok
foo is both a central planner and thus incipient socialist, yet he states "Be more flexible in your outlook on life, people and.." in lecturing others!
Likely less crime if these shops are allowed and scrutinized carefully.
-DrDan
In fact there was less crime when the dispensaries were open.
Ken_Volok
Finally, there's this funny thing called "freedom" that we are supposed to have, and I believe one can see why we do not have it by how many people in this thread have absolutely no comprehension of what it means. LEAVE ME ALONE!!
-loonpt
Green Well Dispensary Gets $75,000 to Offset Legal Costs
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
By Nick Welsh
In its ongoing legal battle with Green Well medical marijuana dispensary — formerly located at 500 North Milpas Street — Santa Barbara City Hall appears to have dodged what could have been a damaging bullet. Several weeks ago, dispensary owners agreed to call it quits in exchange for $75,000 to help defray legal expenses accrued while trying to fight City Hall. The terms of the agreement were surprising given that Green Well owners spent nearly $300,000 in legal fees and initially appeared to have an ironclad case.
The Green Well opened for business in January 2010 after reportedly spending $400,000 and nine months securing all the necessary city permits to legally open shop. In addition, Green Well’s owners at the time — James Lee and Nate Reinke — bent over backward to ingratiate themselves with the community, leading cleanup drives and donating to the neighborhood clinics. But in response to growing opposition to storefront marijuana dispensaries, the City Council voted to change the rules of the game and, in so doing, effectively put Green Well out of business. When Green Well was first approved, city regulations required dispensaries to be 500 feet from the nearest school. The dispensary, located 532 feet from Santa Barbara Junior High, complied. But the new language required a separation of at least 600 feet.
Initially, City Hall offered the owners — who have since parted ways — a 180-day grace period, but in the face of intense skepticism by the judge reviewing the case, expanded that to a four-year phaseout period. Whether that would be sufficient to inoculate City Hall from legal attack became moot last May when officials with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Justice Department called a meeting with property owners renting space to Santa Barbara’s dispensaries and threatened them with legal action if they did not evict their tenants. To show they were serious, federal officials initiated legal actions to seize the property of three dispensary landlords. Law enforcement officials refer to this event as “The Great Shutdown,” and almost overnight, Santa Barbara’s once flourishing dispensary scene disappeared.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/18/pot-shop-calls-it-quits-lawsuit-city-hall/
Comments (poster foofighter is presumed by some to be our local Republican Committee Chairman)
Good riddance.
-foofighter
Yes, I feel so much safer now. Don't you?
-John_Adams
foo, it's amazing you can spout a certain kind of economic freedom out of the one side of your mouth with economic tyranny coming right out the other..
-loonpt
Good ole business-friendly Santa Babylon...well...if you are a tourist-oriented business or a bar of some kind...yeah, SB is a great place to be. Everyone else get the heck out...and if ya don't do as you're told, the powers that be will just outspend you and push you out anyway.
SB is so worried about pot shops...but bars...yeah...more bars...yup...SB needs more bars.
The hypocrisy boggles.
-Holly
loonpit, you need to stop labeling others by your own stereotypes. It causes your brain to implode. Be more flexible in your outlook on life, people and peruse your own deep authenticity for yourself alone. Which means you may have to lay off the pot for while.
-foofighter
city hall and dea.... hand in hand to make the streets safe for Mexican drug cartels! at least it's more exiting to hear reports on guns and smack!
-touristunfriendly
Take note of the tax windfalls accruing to state government entities due to increasing property values.
Making communities safe, clean and productive benefits everyone because this is an excellent property value enhancement and provides one of the best returns on investment on every level. The more property taxes taken in, the more real money for schools.
Letting communities degrade, get blighted, destroy retail and divert more property off the tax rolls makes a community sicken and die. SB will lose out on this current upturn in property taxes, because it has already taken too much of its real estate out the free market. Oh well.
Goleta and the county will do well; but Santa Barbara will not. Thank you city council members for shooting this city in the foot with your social utopian agenda that helped no one and has harmed many.
-foofighter
You're such a central planner, foo..
-loonpt
Label me somewhere between a libertarian and a social utopian, loon pit. At any given time, issue or position.
-foofighter
The spokesperson for prohibition in this thread adequately illustrates the insanity, avarice and delusion fueling that effort.
-Ken_Volok
foo is both a central planner and thus incipient socialist, yet he states "Be more flexible in your outlook on life, people and.." in lecturing others!
Likely less crime if these shops are allowed and scrutinized carefully.
-DrDan
In fact there was less crime when the dispensaries were open.
Ken_Volok
Finally, there's this funny thing called "freedom" that we are supposed to have, and I believe one can see why we do not have it by how many people in this thread have absolutely no comprehension of what it means. LEAVE ME ALONE!!
-loonpt