Chandler, AZ Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

Chandler City Code § 35-2213 sets the separation rule for medical marijuana in Table 2213.2(B)(6). A medical marijuana facility (the dispensary storefront) or a medical marijuana cultivation site must be located at least 1,320 feet from each of these: a public or private day care center, a public or private park, a place of worship, a charter school, public or private school or college, a public library, a public or private hospital, and the boundary of any residential zoning district. The distance to another medical marijuana facility, cultivation site or infusion food establishment is 5,280 feet. The table's footnote waives that 5,280 feet when a facility and its affiliated cultivation site or infusion food establishment sit on the same premises or in the same building.

Measurement is mechanical. Staff draw a straight line in any direction from the closest exterior wall of the facility or cultivation site to the nearest property line of the parcel holding the protected use. The line does not follow roads or walking routes, and it ends at the parcel line, not at the school building or sanctuary itself. No separation is required between two facilities or sites divided by a freeway. The section also closes the usual escape hatches: the separation requirements cannot be reduced through a variance, a Planned Area Development, or any other manner.

The distances sit on top of a zoning layer. A facility is allowed only in C-2 or C-3 districts with a zoning clearance from the Zoning Administrator, or in I-1 or I-2 districts with a use permit that City Council approves or denies. Cultivation sites and infusion food establishments are limited to I-1 and I-2 districts with a zoning clearance. On the clearance route a facility cannot exceed 5,000 gross square feet. On the use permit route the cap is 2,500 gross square feet or 25 percent of the gross building square footage, whichever is less. Section 35-2213.3(E) applies the same table to use permit facilities. Facility hours run from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with no drive-through or take-out windows and no outdoor seating.

A facility that lawfully operates does not fall out of compliance if a park, school or other listed use is later built inside the separation area. That protection applies only to renewal of a valid use permit. A renewal application must reach the Zoning Administrator at least 70 days before expiration, and an application filed after a permit expired or was revoked gets no such protection.