C.A. 1st;
A149907

The First Appellate District reversed a trial court order. The court held that a city could rationally limit its grant of limited immunity from prosecution to those medical marijuana dispensaries that had demonstrated past compliance with local laws by timely payment of a local business tax.

Local zoning ordinances in the City of Vallejo do not recognize medical marijuana dispensaries as a permitted land use. As a result, such businesses constitute a public nuisance. In 2011, faced with a proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries, and lacking the financial resources to enforce land use restrictions, the city enacted an ordnance imposing a business tax on dispensaries. The city described the measure as a “first necessary step in taxing and regulating” the dispensaries. In 2015, the city council adopted Ordinance No. 1715, which afforded “limited civil immunity” to those dispensaries that had previously obtained tax certificates and timely paid their quarterly taxes. NCORP4, Inc., doing business as Nature's Love Collective, promptly paid all taxes owed from 2011 through 2015. Finding NCORP4's later payment of taxes did not entitle it to limited immunity, the city later sued to enjoin as a public nuisance NCORP4's further operations as a dispensary.