Decatur, AL Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

Decatur sets its cannabis buffers in subsections (d), (e) and (f) of § 14-241, added by Ord. No. 22-4544A on December 6, 2022. There are three separate tests, and a site has to pass all of them.

The first is the 1,000-foot rule in subsection (d). No medical cannabis dispensing site can be located closer than one thousand feet from the boundaries of any church, school, day care or child care facility. The measuring points are the boundaries of the protected use, so a dispensary next to a small day care is caught the same way as one next to a large high school. The subsection lists four kinds of protected use: churches, schools, day cares and child care facilities. It names no parks, playgrounds or libraries, and the article contains no separate distance for them.

The second is the 500-foot rule in subsection (e). No site can be located closer than five hundred feet from the boundaries of any residential zoning district. The exception is the R-4 (multi-family) district, which is handled by a stricter rule instead of a shorter one. Subsection (f) says no medical cannabis dispensing site shall be located within the boundaries of any R-4 (multi-family) residential zoning district, so apartment zoning is closed to dispensing sites completely.

Because the 500-foot test is tied to zoning district boundaries rather than to individual homes, the official Decatur zoning map decides which parcels are caught. A parcel that borders a single-family district fails, while one that sits more than 500 feet from every residential district boundary and 1,000 feet from every church, school and child care facility clears the distance tests. Article IX contains no waiver or exception clause for these distances. The sites remain subject to Alabama Act 21-450 and its rules under subsection (a).