City officials in San Jose, California, are deadlocked on medical marijuana zoning after a vote Tuesday night.
The city council voted 5-5 on the zoning rules, which would restrict medical marijuana businesses to primarily industrial areas of the city. Since one member was absent, the council will have to meet again next week to get a majority vote on the proposal.
The council has delayed the vote numerous times, and the city has wrestled with its medical marijuana rules for years.
The draft ordinances would ban medical marijuana collectives from all but 623 parcels of land in the city and set distance requirements between dispensaries and schools, churches, community centers, retirement homes and other areas.
Industry leaders in San Jose have said the ordinances would effectively kill the industry, since the lion’s share of the city’s 80 or so medical dispensaries would either need to relocate or close.
