The City Council agreed on some rough guidelines Wednesday on where medical marijuana clinics should be allowed to operate, but put off a final decision on a long-debated ordinance at least until next week.

Council members seemed to agree that at least the 137 clinics that had filed for permission under the city's original rules should be allowed to remain open, but most of the others may have to relocate.

Los Angeles officials have been debating the issue for more than four months as the number of collectives believed operating in the city has grown to between 800 to 1,000.

Among key issues the council is still debating is how close clinics should be allowed to schools, homes and churches. An earlier proposal would have created buffer zones so large that it would have forced the shutdown of nearly every clinic.

The council agreed Wednesday to impose a 500-foot buffer around residential areas but became bogged down in debate over how that area would be measured.

Two ordinances will be returned Tuesday with language allowing the council to vote up or down on various provisions, including the creation of a 1,000-foot buffer zone for sensitive areas, such as schools, parks and libraries.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who supports marijuana clinics, voted against the proposal, saying he was disgusted with the procedure.

"All we will be doing is returning marijuana to the back alleys rather than allow people who need it to be able to get it," Rosendahl said. "This is a hard day for me. Fifteen years ago to the day, my partner died after an eight-year battle with AIDS. He wouldn't have been alive those eight years without marijuana."

City planning officials said the measures being considered by the City Council would allow between four to 39 existing operators to remain at their current locations, while forcing the others to move elsewhere within the city.

The debate continued to focus on the city's power to control land use, while pitting clinic supporters against those seeking to protect residential areas.

"I brought in the motion to have a 1,000-foot buffer for sensitive uses and 500 feet for residential," Councilman Richard Alarc n said. "I am passionate about that. I will not vote for anything else."

Alarc n said critics who said such a proposal would too strictly limit access for patients who need the marijuana do not take into account a provision that allows medical marijuana in medical residential facilities.

"I think what we have to do is start small and grow it right," Alarc n said.

Council President Eric Garcetti said he did not want the issue to be a victim of political rhetoric.

"There is a false decision in a lot of the rhetoric," Garcetti said. "We can have safe access and safe communities. We don't need to have reefer madness or the Wild, Wild West approach to drugs."

It is up to the state to determine whether marijuana should be available or legalized, while cities determine operating provisions.

"We have to to make sure we deal with the fears of those about these operations and the fears of those concerned with not having access to the medication they need," Garcetti said.

John Duncan, a representative of the medical marijuana group Americans for Safe Access, urged the council to consider allowing the clinics that applied to open under the city's original rules continue under a "good neighbor" policy.

"The vast majority of the medical marijuana collectives and cooperators are law abiding," Duncan said. "They are good neighbors and you don't need onerous restrictions to allow them to continue to operate."

At the same time, some communities feel overwhelmed by the collectives.

Barbara Monahan Burke of the Studio City Neighborhood Council said her community has 12 dispensaries.

"That is too many for our small community," Burke said. "We do support compassionate use, but regulations have to be consistent and consistently enforced."