Chicopee, MA Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

In the City of Chicopee, § 275-72(D)(4) fixes how far an adult use marijuana establishment must sit from sensitive land uses. Distance is measured from the closest point on the parcel line of the parcel holding the sensitive use to the closest point of the establishment's structural footprint. The table has one column per license group. Group A (business to business) and Group B (retail) establishments must stay 500 feet from a school attended by children under the age of 18, a licensed childcare facility, a municipally owned park, a playground or play field, a youth center, another establishment regularly hosting youth under age 18, a church or place of worship, and a library. Group C establishments, which conduct no sales, keep 250 feet from those same uses. All three groups keep 1,000 feet from a drug rehabilitation or detoxification facility, a boarding and/or lodging house, and a prison or detention facility.

Paths and water access are handled separately. No adult use marijuana establishment shall locate within 50 feet of a municipally owned bikeway, pedestrian path, other facility primarily used for nonvehicular travel, or a boat ramp, slip or water access facility, and no connection traversable by foot, bike or any mode of transportation shall be established between a recreational marijuana facility and such a path. The table cells for those rows print 501 and a footnote points to § 275-72D(4)(d)[2], the 50-foot rule.

Groups A and B also install a densely planted vegetated screen along any parcel boundary abutting a residentially zoned or residentially used parcel, not less than 100 feet deep and at least eight feet tall at installation, with no primary or accessory building inside it. Group C follows the screening rules of its underlying district. Land owned or controlled by the federal government, including the military, is assumed to prohibit establishments and is excluded from the City's locational analysis. Separately, § 275-72(G) lets the special permit granting authority waive setback requirements on a written request, by an affirmative vote of 3/4 of all members and a separate vote.