Can't your "local" dealer order a car for you, or are you in a hurry to get into one right now? I had plenty of local dealers that could sell me one, but none of them had the exact build I wanted, so I just resigned myself to wait 3 months or so and put a deposit down with the one giving me the best deal on the "special order" LR4 I really wanted, down to the color and every single option.
I have heard about LRNA instructing dealers to respect each others territory - up to a point I guess, as I didn't buy from my closest dealer either, but I am lucky to live in a place where I have a half dozen LR dealers within 50 miles, the lines get blurry in a big metro area such as L.A. I think it's mostly a honor system rather than a written rule, but it is true that unscrupulous dealers can get dinged financially by LRNA for selling outside of their territory, although I also think that dealer you talked to probably added a bit of made up drama with that 3K "penalty".