Cambridge, MA Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

4, Buffer Zones, sets the city's cannabis siting distances. Subsection (a) prohibits a Cannabis Retail Store or Cannabis Production Facility within 300 feet of a pre-existing public or private school serving kindergarten through grade 12, and subsection (b) applies the same 300-foot buffer to a pre-existing public children's playground, public youth athletic field, or public youth recreation facility. Both buffers can be reduced only if the Planning Board, in granting the required special permit, finds the location will cause no substantial adverse impact given site-specific factors or mitigation the permittee agrees to in writing as a permit condition; there is no administrative waiver outside that special permit process.

30) and any overlay district that borrows those use regulations, and in the Business A-1 district restricts retail to Economic Empowerment Applicants or Social Equity Program participants certified by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. 1(b) separately bars a new Cannabis Retail Store within 1,800 feet of another Cannabis Retail Store, unless the applicant holds that same Economic Empowerment or Social Equity designation. 3) require a Planning Board special permit and the same 10,000-square-foot cap. 18 of the City Code and file an Operations and Logistics Plan with TPTD and the Cambridge Police Department before applying for a building permit or certificate of occupancy.