Sussex County, DE Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

7, added 5-14-2024 by Ord. No. 3016, layer two more spacing rules onto the store-siting standard in Subsection A. Subsection B bars clustering: no retail marijuana store shall be located within three miles of any other retail marijuana store, so a single three-mile radius effectively reserves an entire area of the county for one operator. Subsection C protects sensitive uses: no retail marijuana store shall be located within three miles of any church, school, college, or substance abuse treatment facility as defined under 16 Del.

§ 2203. Because Sussex County incorporates that state definition by cross-reference rather than writing its own, what counts as a qualifying substance abuse treatment facility is set by Delaware's Title 16 licensing framework, not by the zoning code itself. All three distance rules, from municipal boundaries, from other stores, and from churches, schools, colleges and treatment facilities, apply cumulatively; an applicant must clear every three-mile buffer simultaneously before a location works. Stores already approved and licensed as of the date of adoption keep operating as legal nonconforming uses under Subsection E even if a later-built church, school or competitor moves inside their three-mile radius.