New Britain, CT Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

New Britain's Zoning Ordinance sets three separation standards for cannabis dispensary and retail uses at Section 270-40-40.155.40, adopted April 14, 2022. First, Section 270-40-40.155.40.10 bars any medical marijuana dispensary, adult-use dispensary facility, retailer or hybrid-retailer within 200 feet of a church, temple or other place of religious worship, and within 200 feet of any public or private elementary or high school, park or playground. Second, Section 270-40-40.155.40.20 adds a 100-foot buffer along the same street frontage from any residentially zoned property, so a storefront cannot sit directly across a narrow lot line from housing even where the underlying zoning would allow it.

Third, Section 270-40-40.155.40.40 keeps cannabis retail outlets 1,000 feet apart from each other and from cannabis producers, product manufacturers and packagers, with the distance measured from the radius of one establishment's front door to the next establishment's front door, not by straight-line lot boundary. Section 270-40-40.155.40.30 layers on a use restriction rather than a distance: no dispensary or retailer may share a building with a residential use or with another cannabis dispensary or retailer. The identical 200-foot religious/school/park buffer and 100-foot residential-frontage buffer apply to cannabis production facilities (cultivators, micro-cultivators, manufacturers and packagers) under the parallel Section 270-40-40.156.10 and .156.20, though production facilities are not subject to the door-to-door retail spacing rule in the same way; instead Section 270-40-40.156.40 keeps production parcels 1,000 feet from any other production parcel.

All buffer distances run alongside the zoning district limits in Section 270-40-40.155.30, so a site can satisfy the underlying district requirement and still be barred outright by these separation rules.