[420 Girl]

Panel Rejects Proposed Del Aire Facility, Citing a Nearby Child-Care Facility.

County regional planning commissioners Wednesday turned down a permit application that would have allowed a medical marijuana dispensary near Los Angeles International Airport.

The decision came after Del Aire residents complained that the store would contribute to the area's seedy atmosphere and be too close to a child-care facility.

A closed bar, check-cashing business, strip club and motel stand near the vacant building at 11816 Aviation Blvd. in the unincorporated neighborhood of Del Aire.

Del Aire Neighborhood Association President John Koppelman said the LAX Suites motel and Ye Olde Shack bar - which has been closed for three years partially due to his efforts - bring prostitution, drugs and violence to the neighborhood. He believes the marijuana dispensary would only exacerbate that.

"It costs $150 to get a doctor's recommendation for marijuana," Koppelman said. "That's all it takes. You don't have to be sick. If you live in the motel and sell dope, you could go next door and get the dope. If you have a dope house, you're going to get dope activity."

Lawrence Epstein, chief executive officer of the collective that wants to operate the dispensary, applied for a conditional-use permit to open it.

Epstein helped establish the Marina Caregivers dispensary in Marina del Rey in 2005, and said it has grown to more than 100 customers a day.

"We do have more competition now," Epstein told the commission Wednesday. "When we opened in 2005, this was something very new. "Patients coming from the South Bay area would come to this ( proposed ) facility."

The South Bay is currently served by at least eight door-to-door marijuana delivery services and a few dispensaries that opened before Torrance, Carson, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills Estates, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne and Gardena instituted moratoriums on them.

California approved the use of medical marijuana more than 10 years ago, but it is still illegal under federal law. Still, more than 200 medical marijuana dispensaries have opened in Los Angeles County since then.

Though the county allows dispensaries that adhere to certain regulations, members of the Regional Planning Commission questioned whether they should go against federal law, which maintains that marijuana is an illegal narcotic.

"The U.S. Constitution is a guideline that reigns supreme," Regional Planning Commissioner Pat Modugno said Wednesday, when considering the application.

But the sticking point for commissioners was a home child-care center a few blocks away. County code regulating dispensaries says day-care centers must be at least 1,000 square feet away.

"I've had a lot of thought on this issue, on both sides," Commissioner Leslie Bellamy said before voting down the permit. "I didn't know child-care facilities were in the area. This is a small community, and the community stated there are crime issues across the street - prostitution and drugs."

Epstein, who is leasing the building, said he plans to appeal the commission's decision.

"This has been a very eye-opening process for me," Epstein said. "It's the first time I've been through a conditional-use permit process, angry residents, newspaper reporters. I don't know anything about this.

"I am disappointed in the decision. I've put a lot of time and energy into this. I thought it was going to go the other way."

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