In the spring of 2019, Angel Law filed lawsuits on behalf of the Greater Los Angeles Communities Alliance (GreatLACA) asking the Los Angeles County Superior Court to order the El Monte city council to undo back-to-back actions approving the development of industrial-scale marijuana factories near residential communities and schools. Our pleadings showed that the city council’s deals with the operators of the proposed factories violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the federal Controlled Substances Act.
GreatLACA’s unwavering determination to call the El Monte city council to account for its conduct and a strong opening salvo in court, laying out the marijuana factories’ harmful effects on the environment, public health, and public safety was all it took to achieve GreatLACA’s strategic objective: the marijuana factory developers surrendered and as they stole away, on July 17, 2019, the city council reversed course and rescinded all its development deals and approvals.
Sweet victory for all the residents of El Monte and neighboring communities whose voices El Monte’s elected officials ignored! Angel Law applauds GreatLACA for its leading role in the grassroots organizing, public education campaign, and fundraising for the legal action—the path to victory and environmental justice.
“Thus the energy developed by good fighting is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
For more information about El Monte’s about-face, check out this report in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:
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