Portland City Code 33.815 and OAR 845-025 require recreational cannabis retailers to sit at least 1000 feet from public and private K-12 schools. Portland adds a 1000-foot buffer between dispensaries to prevent clustering in commercial corridors.
Following Measure 91 (2014), the OLCC sets a statewide 1000-foot school buffer measured property-line to property-line. Portland exercised its local option under PCC 33.815.105 to require an additional 1000 feet between dispensaries, halting the 2015-era cannabis cluster on Sandy and Hawthorne. The city counts daycares licensed with the Oregon Early Learning Division as schools for buffer purposes. Buffers are measured by walking distance, not radius, after a 2017 city tweak. Existing operators that pre-dated buffer expansion are grandfathered as legal nonconforming uses but cannot relocate within a buffer zone.
Operating inside a buffer without grandfathered status, expanding beyond the original footprint, or relocating closer than 1000 feet to a school risks OLCC license suspension and city land-use citations up to five thousand dollars per day.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how Portland's buffer zones rules stack up against other locations.
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