Boulder, CO Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Under Section 6-16-7(b) of the Boulder Revised Code, a recreational marijuana business license issues only where the proposed use is permitted as a matter of right in that zone district: a marijuana center must qualify as personal service use, a cultivation facility as greenhouse and plant nursery, and manufacturing or testing operations under 15,000 square feet as light manufacturing. Subsection (c) bans any recreational marijuana business from a building containing a residence, from a dwelling unit, from a residential zone district, or from a mixed use development.

Subsection (d) bars retail sales inside a cultivation facility or manufacturer that is not a licensed center. The buffer rules in Subsection (e) keep a marijuana center license from issuing within 1,000 feet of any public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school, a college or university, or a state-licensed day care center or addiction recovery facility, measured property-line to property-line on the city's official maps. A separate 500-foot buffer applies between any recreational marijuana business and three or more other cannabis businesses, and Subsection (e)(4) bars a marijuana center from the street level of the pedestrian mall or the University Hill commercial district.

Nearly identical medical marijuana siting rules sit in Section 6-14-7 of the city's separate medical marijuana licensing chapter. Boulder is not an opt-out city: it licenses both medical and recreational marijuana businesses under Chapters 14 and 16 rather than banning them, but every location still needs a city license on top of the state license before opening.