Merced, CA Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)
Key Facts
- Dispensary school buffer
- 1,000 feet
- Day care/park/library buffer
- 600 feet
- Cultivation/mfg/testing buffer
- 600 feet
- Max dispensary permits citywide
- 5
- Downtown ban zone
- 19th-16th St, O St-MLK Jr. Way
Summary
Merced bars cannabis dispensaries within 1,000 feet of any school and within 600 feet of a day care center, youth center, library, or public park. Cultivation, manufacturing, and testing facilities face the same 600-foot buffer. Only five dispensary permits may operate citywide, and none may sit in the downtown City Center corridor.
No cannabis dispensary may be located within a one thousand-foot radius from a school or within a six hundred-foot radius from a day care center, youth center, library or public park that is in existence at the time the application for a commercial cannabis business permit is submitted to the city, as required in Merced Municipal Code Section 20.44.170(E)(3)(f). No cultivation facility, manufacturing facility, testing facility or any other commercial cannabis business facility may be located within a six hundred-foot radius from a school, day care center, youth center, library, or public park that is in existence at the time the application for a commercial cannabis business permit is submitted to the city, as required in Merced Municipal Code Section 20.44.170(E)(3)(f).
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 85 - 1-26).
Full Breakdown
170 sets the distance rules for every commercial cannabis business type. A dispensary, whether medical, adult-use, or combined, cannot locate within a 1,000-foot radius of a school, measured from the property as it exists when the commercial cannabis business permit (CCBP) application is filed. The same dispensary also cannot sit within 600 feet of a day care center, youth center, library, or public park. Cultivation, manufacturing, testing, and other commercial cannabis facilities get a lighter 600-foot buffer from that same list of uses, but no separate school distance applies to them.
Footnote 1 caps the city at five total dispensary permits, at least one of which must also sell medicinal cannabis; footnote 2 bans any dispensary from the City Center area between 19th and 16th Streets and O Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 170(D) requires strict compliance with every standard in the chapter before a CCBP issues. 030.
Violations & Fines
Applying for or operating within the buffer, or without a valid CCBP, is grounds for the city to deny or revoke the permit under Section 20.44.170(D)'s compliance mandate. Because the city's selection panel, the city manager, police chief, and development services director, scores every CCBP application, a buffer violation surfaces before a permit is ever granted; an existing permit found in violation can be revoked and the business treated as unpermitted commercial cannabis activity subject to code enforcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How close can a cannabis dispensary be to a school in Merced?
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Merced
California rules heatmap·Compare Merced to another location·View the California cannabis regulations overview
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