SAN JOSE — City officials on Wednesday began the process of shutting down medical marijuana shops next to homes as part of strict new regulations to be rolled out next year.

A minute before midnight, the San Jose City Council late Tuesday ended an hours-long discussion and voted 8-3 to support a package of pot shop laws that they expect to take a final vote on in March.

The regulations would limit the city’s 82 medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in less than 1 percent of the city — mostly in the industrial northern tip of San Jose, away from homes, schools and drug rehab centers. Those new rules could take effect next spring or summer.

In the meantime, the council told city code officials to begin sending letters to pot shops situated next to homes, telling them that they are illegal and need to shut down, and expect all of those dispensaries to be closed within a month or two. Even though San Jose has no laws expressly banning pot shops, it has no laws allowing them, either — meaning city officials have the authority to shut them down. While the city has gone after clubs that drew complaints, it is now broadening enforcement.

The council’s decision comes after complaints from youth groups, neighborhood leaders, schools and local government agencies who said kids are getting their weed from the pot shops. The Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office said drug-related suspensions were up 243 percent at east San Jose schools since the pot shops began multiplying a few years ago.

Councilwoman Rose Herrera led the charge at the meeting to ban the pot shops altogether, but that effort failed by a 7-4 vote, with only Councilmen Xavier Campos, Kansen Chu and Pete Constant joining Herrera.

On the other end were pot shop owners who have promised to once again gather signatures to put strict regulations on the ballot, as they did when council members tried passing new rules in 2011. They said the dispensaries create jobs, produce more than $5 million annually in tax revenue for the city and try to work with neighborhoods, and that it was wrong to blame the shop owners.

“What happened to parents taking responsibilities for their children and their children’s actions?” Doug Chloupek, co-founder of the MedMar Healing Center pot shop in downtown San Jose.

Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at Twitter.com/RosenbergMerc.