Long Branch, NJ Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

City of Long Branch Code § 104-1(B), part of the cannabis licensing ordinance adopted December 8, 2021 by Ordinance No. 22-21, sets the buffer for Class 5 retail cannabis stores, the only license class the city treats as a storefront use. A Class 5 retailer cannot locate within 1,000 feet of another existing Class 5 premises, or within 1,000 feet of any school, park or house of worship. The ordinance does not spell out its own measuring method; instead it borrows the rule New Jersey uses to measure the distance between a liquor-licensed premises and a school or church, so the distance runs along the shortest line of ordinary pedestrian or vehicular travel between the two closest points of the properties involved, not a straight-line radius on a map.

The buffer sits on top of, not instead of, the citywide cap in § 104-1(A) limiting Long Branch to one licensed cannabis business per class: even a proposed retail site that clears the 1,000-foot buffer still has to fit within the single-Class-5-license ceiling. The buffer applies specifically to Class 5 retailers; the ordinance does not extend the same 1,000-foot rule to cultivator, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or delivery licenses, Classes 1 through 4 and 6, which face only the one-per-class citywide cap. An applicant should confirm current license status and exact distances with the City Clerk's office before signing a lease, since the buffer is measured against whatever Class 5 premises is already licensed at the time of application, not a fixed zoning map.