Lower Merion, PA Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

Lower Merion Township does not set its own numeric buffer distance for medical marijuana dispensaries; instead, § 155-10.5.H incorporates the separation requirements of Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act directly into the Zoning Code, so a dispensary applicant must satisfy whatever distance the state statute sets between a dispensary and protected uses such as schools. What the Township does specify locally is how that distance gets measured on the ground: subsection H requires the separation to be measured using a pedestrian route that is continually accessible to the public, running from lot line to lot line, and the measurement applies regardless of which municipality the competing use is located in, so a school or another dispensary just across the Township line in Philadelphia or Narberth still counts.

This pedestrian-route method is stricter in practice than a simple straight-line radius, because it follows the actual sidewalks and crossings a person would walk rather than cutting through blocks or private property, which can push the effective distance further than a straight-line measurement would suggest. The dispensary use itself, described in § 155-10.5, is only authorized where a use table lists it subject to these supplemental regulations, and the applicant separately has to hold a current medical marijuana permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Health before the Township will treat the separation requirement as satisfied.

Because the actual numeric distance lives in the Medical Marijuana Act rather than in Township text, an applicant has to check the current state statute directly rather than relying on this section alone.