Framingham, MA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Framingham City Code § 435-48A(2) flatly bars the Zoning Board of Appeals from issuing a variance that would let a marijuana retail establishment operate outside the Marijuana Retail Overlay Zoning District, and bars a variance for a marijuana cultivator or marijuana product manufacturer outside the areas identified in the zoning chapter's Table of Uses, Row 6C. That closes off the ordinary escape valve zoning applicants use elsewhere in Framingham: everywhere else in the code, a use excluded from a district can sometimes reach the ZBA for relief, but marijuana retail location is carved out entirely.

Every marijuana retailer, cultivator and product manufacturer is also pulled into minor site plan review before the Planning Board under § 435-47B(1)(f), regardless of project size, so a location inside the overlay still needs Planning Board sign-off on layout, parking and screening before a certificate of occupancy issues. Separately, § 318-6 of the General Ordinances caps the number of marijuana retailers citywide at nine, tied to 20% of the City's package-store liquor licenses under MGL c. 94G, § 3(a)(2)(ii), and gives priority host-community-agreement review to any medical marijuana treatment center that held a provisional state license for a Framingham site on or before July 1, 2017.

Zoning violations, including operating a retail marijuana establishment at an unauthorized address, are enforced by the Building Commissioner under § 435-42, who can order the use to cease, revoke any permit issued for the premises, or seek an injunction in Superior Court.