Stratford, CT Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

The Stratford Zoning Regulations handle cannabis separation in two different ways inside Section 4.4.10, and the difference matters to anyone scouting a site in the Town of Stratford.

The hard number is in Section 4.4.10(E)(i)(1): no cannabis establishment is permitted on a site that is less than 1,500 feet from any other site containing a cannabis establishment, measured by taking the nearest straight line between the respective lot boundaries of each site. Subsection (2) adds that no cannabis establishment is permitted within the same building structure or portion thereof that is used for residential purposes.

Schools, parks and other sensitive places get a discretionary test, not a footage. Under Section 4.4.10(D)(3), the Zoning Commission must take into consideration the proximity of the premises to residential areas, religious institutions, schools, playgrounds, parks, public or private recreation areas, substance abuse disorder treatment facilities, community centers, libraries, child day-care facilities or any place primarily frequented by minors. The applicant must disclose distances to all of those locations and to any other place frequented by minors.

The disclosure is backed by the site plan rules in Section 4.4.10(D)(i). The site plan has to indicate the location of all other land uses within a one-half-mile radius of the proposed facility and the setbacks to those uses, explain the methods used to identify the surrounding uses and distances, and it is the applicant's responsibility to research and accurately identify them. Failure to accurately document surrounding uses may result in the revocation of any zoning compliance. In the conditional approval stage, the Commission is told to pay close attention to odor control, distances to those uses and landscape buffers to adjoining uses. All of this runs through the Section 7.3.4 special permit, and the sites are limited to the districts in Section 4.4.10(B).