Costa Mesa, CA Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

93(e)(1) bars any cannabis retail storefront from locating within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school, playground, child daycare, homeless shelter, or youth center that is already operating when the cannabis business permit application is submitted, and within 250 feet of any property zoned for residential use. The code names the specific residential zoning districts that trigger the 250-foot buffer: R1, R2-MD, R2-HD, R3, TC, PDR-LD, PDR-MD, PDR-HD and PDR-NCM. A property developed for residential use under an overlay, urban plan or specific plan still counts as residential for the buffer even if it isn't zoned residential outright, but a property merely allowed to go residential under such a plan, without residential construction yet, does not count, and a legal nonconforming residential unit sitting on non-residential-zoned land does not trigger the buffer either.

93(e)(2) requires every distance to be measured in a straight line from the cannabis retail premises to the closest property line of the protected use, without regard to intervening structures, barriers, or the city's boundary, and a playground's property line is defined as a 30-foot radius drawn from the outer edge of its play equipment area under subsection (e)(2)(a). Retail locations found to have hosted unpermitted or illegal cannabis sales, delivery or dispensing within the prior 365 days are separately disqualified under subsection (e)(4) until a full year has passed since the illegal activity stopped and the property owner reimburses the city's enforcement costs.

A storefront that lawfully met the buffers when its conditional use permit was approved but is later discontinued or abandoned for more than 180 days, or replaced by another use, loses that permit for good under subsection (e)(6), after a hearing under Title 9, Chapter II.