The legal wrangling over medical marijuana in Maple Valley has ended.

The Maple Valley City Council approved two resolutions at its Sept. 25 meeting authorizing City Manager David Johnston to reach a settlement agreement with Green Society Group, a medical marijuana management company, over a complaint of moral nuisance in King County Superior Court.

The first resolution was for a settlement with David Skvorak and Lisa Bowers, who own Frontier Village and had leased space to GSG.

As part of the settlements, Johnston said, the owners will pay a fourth of the city’s legal costs, which is estimated to be around $3,300.

The other resolution allowed for settlement agreement with Chris Schoonover, Jon Hofer, and Paige Britton, in which they will pay $2,700 in fines related to violations and citations.

Johnston stated the settlement agreement has not yet been finalized, as they are still waiting for the paperwork to be signed.

“I think the main thing is hopefully this action gets people to respect city codes,” he said. “Particularly the private sector that engages in such businesses – that they will take these types of city codes seriously before acting. It’s not just ours, but municipal codes in general. That’s our biggest thing. We had this ordinance and it seemed like people were just disregarding them. So we were glad our hearing examiner ruled the way he did and it led to an illegal business shutting down.”

The complaint was filed, along with a request for an injunction against GSG in late August.

The complaint claimed that GSG was operating a collective garden or medical marijuana dispensary, which violates a city ordinance prohibiting collective gardens, as well as both state and federal laws which prohibit dispensaries.

GSG owner Chris Schoonover has stated repeatedly that it is a management company.

The Maple Valley Hearing Examiner ruled in September that GSG was a collective garden after they were cited in June for violating the city’s year-long moratorium on collective gardens, which the City Council had approved in July of last year. The Council approved an outright ban in June. Before that, the business had been given a stop work order and do not occupy notice in May after they opened for business in late April. GSG closed for business in late August.

Phone calls to Jay Berneberg, GSG’s attorney, were unreturned at the time of the Reporter’s Tuesday deadline.