RI Cannabis Act sets a 500-foot buffer from K-12 schools for retail dispensaries; Providence layers additional setbacks from playgrounds and youth-serving facilities through its zoning ordinance.
The state-mandated 500-foot setback from K-12 schools is the floor, not the ceiling. Providence's Zoning Code adds buffer expectations from licensed daycare centers, playgrounds, and youth-serving public facilities under Chapter 35 special-use review. Buffers are measured from the proposed retail door or nearest property line (whichever is closer) to the protected use's property line. Cultivation, manufacturing, and testing licensees do not have the same retail buffer but must still comply with industrial zoning and odor-control conditions. New schools that open after a dispensary is licensed do not retroactively force closure of the existing operator.
Approving or operating retail inside the buffer can void the license; new applications inside the buffer are denied at zoning review.
See how Providence's buffer zones rules stack up against other locations.
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