SOMA RESIDENTS 'SMOKE' POT CLUB IN LEGAL BATTLE

Chalk up a victory for the Tenacious Mom of Tehama Street.

South of Market resident Laura Weil celebrated with neighbors
Wednesday after Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay ordered a
medical marijuana dispensary abutting her property to close its doors.

Weil and her neighbor, Aysu Zeidman, complained that the back door of
Health & Wellness Alternatives, a pot dispensary at 935 Howard St.,
opened onto the heart of their residential block and that the odor of
marijuana wafted up to their windows, where they and their children
could smell it. They also worried about the patrons driving in the
alley while stoned and complained there was a lack of security at the
club.

The ruling comes nearly four months after Weil, a registered nurse at
UCSF and mother of two young children, started battling the recently
opened club, and just a day after a city supervisor introduced a bill
to ban the clubs in residential neighborhoods.

While Weil welcomed that legislation, she said efforts to go through
the political and planning channels were taking too long, so she and
her neighbors decided to fight it in court. She said it has been
expensive and time-consuming.

"We could have planted trees with that money, or flowers ... there are
things we could have done with that money instead of doing The City's
job," Weil said. "The City should be enforcing its code violations. I
shouldn't have to do it privately."

In granting the temporary restraining order against the club,
Quidachay said owners Charlie Pappas and Aundre Speciale violated
local planning laws by not obtaining a conditional use permit before
opening, which is required in the mixed-use zone.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi on Tuesday also introduced a bill that would
require criminal background checks for pot club owners and ban the
clubs in residential neighborhoods.

Pappas, a quadriplegic poet from Berkeley, said he "doesn't want to
harass the neighborhood" and that he was unaware he was opening his
club near housing. But he said Weil seems intent on putting him out of
business no matter what.

"I didn't know I needed a conditional use," he said. "I totally
support the need to have fewer dispensaries, but picking them off one
by one by nitpicking ... is not the way to do it."

Tehama Street, a narrow alley just south of Howard Street, is home to
printing and design businesses as well as a growing number of
children, including Filipino families who have been in the alley for
decades as well as new families.

"We've put our heart into this neighborhood and we want to stay," said
Zeidman, a mother of two who relocated here from London.

"You reach a critical mass and it becomes a family neighborhood -- and
we're pretty much there," Weil said.