Chicopee, MA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Chicopee Code § 275-72, adopted under MGL Chapter 94G, sets where adult use marijuana establishments can locate in the City of Chicopee, and no establishment is permitted except in compliance with it. Every establishment needs a special permit from the City Council, the special permit granting authority, issued under MGL c. 40A, § 9. The eligible districts depend on license group. Group A, business-to-business cultivators and craft marijuana cooperatives, is limited to the Industrial Zoning District (§ 275-62). Group B, business-to-consumer retailers, microbusinesses and social consumption operators, is eligible in Industrial, Business A, Business B, Business C, Mixed Use, Central Business District and the Mill Conversion and Commercial Center Overlay, under §§ 275-62, 275-58, 275-59, 275-60, 275-65, 275-61 and 275-67. Group C, testing laboratories, research facilities and transporters, gets those districts plus Commercial A (§ 275-56). Nothing in § 275-72 bans retail outright; it channels it into those districts.

Chicopee also caps and sequences retail. The council shall approve four Group B special permits at a single moment in time and reserves the right to raise that number. The City entertains proposed licensees only during an open and public request for proposals process managed at its sole discretion. The response package carries a business model with financing and revenue and expense projections spanning at least five years, a site plan and a draft host community agreement. An approved package earns endorsement to file the special permit application, the Site Plan Review Advisory Committee reviews the site plan, and the permit is contingent on approval of licensure by the Cannabis Control Commission.

Operating limits follow the permit. Retailers, social consumption operators and microbusinesses cannot be open between 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. and cannot open before 10:00 a.m. on Sundays. Adult use establishments shall not have drive-through service, and retail uses cannot share a building with a hotel, a motel or the office of a doctor or other practitioner authorized to prescribe medical marijuana. Medical marijuana facilities run on a separate track under § 275-70: a special permit from the City Council in the Industrial Zoning District.