Franklin County, WA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

025, adopted by Ordinance No. 10-2013 and later amended by Ordinance No. 6-2015 and Ordinance No. 4-2017, lists prohibited land uses under Franklin County's Title 17 zoning code. 085, unless federal law otherwise allows them. Subsection B goes further and prohibits the establishment, location, permitting, licensing or operation of marijuana production, processing and retailing to the extent authorized by Initiative 502 or applicable law, in every zoning district countywide, from the agricultural AP-20 and AP-40 districts through the C-1, C-2, C-3, C-R and I-2 commercial and industrial districts.

The county exercised the local opt-out authority Washington's cannabis law leaves to cities and counties, choosing to keep licensed marijuana businesses out of unincorporated territory entirely rather than confine them to particular zones. Because the prohibition applies in all zoning districts in unincorporated Franklin County, there is no conditional use permit, special permit or buffer-distance process that lets a Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board licensee open in the unincorporated area; the only path to a licensed storefront in the county is inside one of the four incorporated cities, each of which sets its own zoning.

The Planning and Building Department enforces Title 17 land use restrictions, and the prohibition sits alongside the county's separate refusal to zone for medical marijuana cooperatives, closing both the medical and recreational channels under the same section.