The City of San Jose filed a complaint against the owners and operators of Amsterdam's Garden marijuana dispensary in May 2015 for zoning violations and for not conforming to city regulations on marijuana dispensaries. After the dispensary was shut down, Coachella Church of Cannabis, later renamed Coachella Valley Church, began operations at the same location. Around November 2017, the operators stated that they were not legally a marijuana dispensary under city regulations but rather a church, and should be exempt from taxation, zoning and other regulations as a legitimate religious group under the United States Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) of 2000.
