Fresno, CA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Retail cannabis businesses must comply with the location and design requirements of FMC 9-3307 as incorporated into 15-2739(B): the building has to be zoned DTN, DTG, CMS, CC, CR, CG, CH, NMX, CMX, or RMX and meet every parking, lighting, and building-material standard that applies in that district. The 800-foot separation in subsection (B)(1)(b) runs from the retail building's property boundary to the nearest other cannabis retailer, K-12 school (public, private, charter, pre-school, or transitional kindergarten), state-licensed day care center, or youth center that existed when the application was submitted.

Cultivation, distribution, manufacturing, and testing-lab uses fall under subsection (C) instead: they must sit inside the Cannabis Innovation Zone or a Cannabis Innovation Hub, or within a half-mile to one-mile band along State Routes 99 and 180, and must be zoned IL or IH. Unless the site is inside the Innovation Zone, those industrial cannabis uses need a 1,000-foot buffer from any residentially zoned parcel (including legal nonconforming residential uses), plus the same school/day-care/youth-center buffers used for retail. Every applicant, retail or industrial, must first obtain a Commercial Cannabis Business Permit from the city and then a Cannabis Conditional Use Permit from the Planning and Development Department under subsection (N) before opening, with applications routed to the affected school district and reviewed by the Council District Project Review Committee.

The Director decides most applications but can refer high-interest cases to the Planning Commission, and every Cannabis CUP automatically expires five years after issuance unless a new operator takes over the unexpired term.