April 2016
Last week, the PDC filed for a restraining order in Multnomah County Circuit Court to block the commercial space owner from renting out the Vanport Square space to a marijuana business.
A dispensary on the property would cause the PDC to suffer “irreparable injury” to its financial interest in Vanport Square, according to its complaint.
A judge threwout the PDC’s demand. But the urban renewal agency’s goals have already been met: Grossman has halted her plans for the dispensary. The partially renovated condo sits empty.
“The main objections that the Vanport Square Condominium Owners’ Association board has to the dispensary use in Vanport Square are primarily business-related,” Woolley told local newspaper Willamette Week
Woolley also told the publication Vanport Square unit owners are not thrilled about being neighbors with a dispensary. “They would prefer to see another small community business that helps to increase the family-oriented retail and service vitality of Vanport Square,”
On Friday, April 1, the PDC filed a temporary restraining order against Zaré in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
The PDC argued that, because it violates federal law, a marijuana dispensary would put Vanport Square’s commercial insurance at risk and put the building at risk of seizure.
But at the April 1 hearing, Judge Kathleen M. Dailey rebuked the PDC’s attorneys, Brent Summers and Robert Betcone.
“Really, gentlemen, the law just doesn’t work this way,” said Dailey.
The judge declined to issue an injunction blocking the dispensary, saying that a legal assurance that a dispensary would not open made the point moot.
