Colonie, NY Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Chapter 62A, Article I, adopted 9-9-2021 by Local Law No. 5-2021, is Colonie's entire local response to the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act's opt-out provision, Cannabis Law § 131. Section 62A-2 recites that the state law lets a town opt out of retail cannabis dispensaries and/or on-site consumption establishments, but § 62A-1's legislative intent and § 62A-3's operative opt-out language both describe only one target: on-site cannabis consumption establishments, applied everywhere in the Town outside the Villages of Colonie and Menands, which run their own separate governments and codes.

Nowhere in Chapter 62A does the Town Board take the parallel step of opting out retail dispensaries, and there is no Article II or later chapter doing so elsewhere in the code. That means a state-licensed adult-use retail dispensary is not locally banned under Chapter 62A; it still has to clear the Town's zoning rules for adult-use establishments, including the 1,000-foot separation buffers set out elsewhere in the Zoning and Land Use chapter. The opt-out law itself was subject to a permissive referendum under the MRTA and Cannabis Law § 131, and the code's editor's note confirms no valid referendum petition was filed within the required time, meaning the on-site consumption opt-out took effect as adopted.