All but five of the city's estimated 800 to 1,000 medical marijuana clinics would be forced to shut down or move under the latest restrictions being considered by the Los Angeles City Council, officials said Wednesday.

The council had intended to reduce the number to no more than 137. But members learned that the actual rules they drafted, including keeping them away from schools and residential areas, went further than they intended, making almost all of the city off-limits to the dispensaries.

Despite mounting anger and frustration by both supporters and opponents of the clinics, the council pushed off final consideration of its law.

"This started four years ago and, somehow, four years later we have still not taken action," said Councilman Dennis Zine. "In that time, we have up to 1,000 illegal operations in the city. It is time for us to move forward."

Council members, however, pushed the matter over to Jan. 13, when they said they wanted to explore a full range of options on where the dispensaries can be located in the city.

Alan Bell of the city Planning Department said the latest proposal - preventing clinics from locating within 500 feet of residential areas and 1,000 feet from schools, parks, libraries and religious institutions - would result in a dramatic reduction of space where the clinics could locate.

"It would mean that 132 of the 137 clinics that the city considers as being properly registered would have to relocate," Bell said.

The council ultimately wants to reduce the number to 70, spread evenly throughout the city, but has said it would allow the 137 clinics that registered properly under the city's original rules to remain in operation.

All of which served to please at least three council members - Richard Alarcon, Jan Perry and Greig Smith - who are seeking more restrictive measures on the location of the clinics.

Perry said her South Los Angeles district has been working to fight problems with liquor stores and she did not want to have new problems created with the medical marijuana dispensaries.

Smith said he did not want any clinics in his district.

"The one thing we haven't had before us is the LAPD with their maps," Smith said. "I would be interested in having the LAPD come in with a crime map that shows every time one of these open there is an increase in crime.

"If we had a system where I had a say, I would not allow one in my district. Those council members who don't have a problem with this, let them sign off on it."

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, however, said he did not want to see marijuana sales return to the back alleys.

"This is a medicinal herb that should be treated with the same respect as we do drug stores," Rosendahl said. "The idea of putting this back in the alleys of the streets is wrong. I will vote no, no, no every time we put more restrictions on these uses."

Council President Eric Garcetti also said he opposed the wider restrictions.

"I don't think we want to see mega-dispensaries in just some parts of the city," Garcetti said. "I also don't think we want to see people who are sick have to drive miles to get medicine they need."

Alarcon said he wanted to see the 500-foot limit from residential areas to protect his neighborhoods, while Perry said she wanted to see that the definition of residential neighborhoods include commercial and industrial-zoned land that is used as housing in her district.

Representatives of different organizations in favor of the medical marijuana clinics said they are prepared to go to court if the council adopts the tough restrictions.

"I think they made it so egregious that it will end up closing every dispensary in the city," said Dan Lutz of the Los Angeles Collective Association.