Yuma, AZ Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

03(E) of the Yuma City Code sets three separate distance-separation rules for every dual-purpose marijuana facility, the combined medical dispensary and recreational retail operation the city's marijuana article authorizes. The first, paragraph (1), requires at least 1,000 feet of separation from any residentially zoned property, whether that property sits inside the city or in unincorporated Yuma County, measured in a straight line from the exterior walls of the facility building to the residential parcel's zoning boundary line. The second, paragraph (2), extends the same 1,000-foot straight-line measurement to a longer list of protected uses regardless of whether they are inside city limits or the county: public and private preschools, kindergartens, elementary schools, and secondary or high schools; any place of worship; and any public park, adult-oriented business, large or small day care facility, or public community center.

Here the distance runs from the facility's exterior wall to the protected use's property line rather than a zoning boundary. The third, paragraph (3), separates competing facilities from each other by at least 5,280 feet, exactly one mile, measured wall-to-wall between the exterior walls of each dual-purpose facility's building, again without regard to whether the other facility sits in the city or the county. Combined with the B-2/L-I zoning limits and the citywide cap of one facility per 50,000 residents in the same article, these three buffers substantially narrow the parcels where a facility can actually locate.