LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles City Council has voted in favor of repealing a ban that was supposed to shutter hundreds of pot dispensaries that have cropped up across the city.

Council members voted 11-2 on Tuesday to negate a vote in July where they decided to rid the nation's second-largest city of pot clinics after advocates gathered enough signatures for a ballot referendum.

Many cities have struggled with medical marijuana ordinances but none has had a bigger problem than Los Angeles, where pot shops have proliferated. At one point, the city ordered closure of the shops - a process that failed amid lawsuits and conflicting rulings by appellate courts.

The so-called "gentle ban" would have eliminated storefronts but allowed patients and caregivers to grow medical marijuana.

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