BROOKLINE, MA — After pushback from community members who rallied multiple times outside of the old Waxy's near St. Mary's, the cannabis retail establishment has formally withdrawn its request to pursue a pot shop there.

In a letter to the economic developer, Ascend Mass' CEO Andrea Cabral thanks the department, but offers no explanation as to why the company has decided not to open shop. The company was awarded the first conditional-use permit for adult-use cannabis retail sales in Boston in January and is expected to open soon there.

Paul Warren, who lives in St. Mary's and who researched what happened in other states and organized neighbors who were concerned about bringing the chain to the local district, setting up meetings and protests that brought out hundreds with signs, said he's relieved - for now. "We won the battle but not the war," he told Patch. "So Ascend is gone, someone else is going to come in. Until Town Meeting realizes their vote [that ended up allowing retail marijuana in districts zoned as local] is completely inappropriate and they go back and revisit it it's going to be a game of wack-a-mole."

Town Meeting members and officials argued that by allowing marijuana establishments to set up shop in local districts, or L districts, such as St. Mary's or Putterham Circle, it could help bring in valuable tax revenue as the town looks for ways to pay for a new school, updates to the high school among other things. Throughout the fall and into the winter, Warren headed a coalition of neighbors arguing that the site was within 498.1 feet of the McKinley Middle School in Boston, which would violate zoning rules which say no marijuana establishment should be within 500 feet of a school. They also argued the site would cause too much traffic and expressed criticism of Ascend's handling of information.

Warren and the opposition collected 1,250 signatures opposing retail marijuana in their densely packed neighborhood zoned for businesses to serve the local neighborhood.

"We know this is the worst possible place to put up a marijuana retailer. It would crush the culture of the neighborhood," Warren said in a phone interview, noting that the response would be the same if were a Walmart or another big box store.