Highland, CA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Highland Municipal Code § 16.80.030 states that commercial marijuana uses are expressly prohibited in all zones and all specific plan areas in the City of Highland. No person can establish, operate, maintain, conduct or allow a commercial marijuana use anywhere within the city, and the City cannot approve any application for a building permit, conditional use permit, variance, or any other entitlement for one. There is no zone, overlay or distance test that opens a location: the ban is citywide.

The definitions in § 16.80.020 make the ban broad. Commercial marijuana activity includes cultivation, possession, manufacture, distribution, processing, storing, laboratory testing, labeling, transportation, delivery or sale of marijuana and marijuana products for medical, non-medical, or any other purpose. It also includes the activities of any business licensed by the state or other government entity under Division 8 or 10 of the California Business and Professions Code. A state license therefore gives no right to open in Highland.

Outdoor marijuana cultivation is separately banned in all zones and specific plan areas, and no owner, renter, lessee or occupant can cause or allow a parcel to be used for cultivating marijuana outdoors. Indoor cultivation is prohibited except in strict compliance with HMC § 9.28.040.

Section 16.80.040 preserves personal-use activity to the extent state law permits it for a person 21 years of age or older: possessing, processing, purchasing, transporting or giving away without compensation not more than 28.5 grams of marijuana not in the form of concentrated cannabis, and up to eight grams of concentrated cannabis. It also protects indoor cultivation of six or fewer live marijuana plants within a single private residence or a fully enclosed and secured accessory structure on its grounds, to the extent authorized by California Health and Safety Code Sections 11362.1 and 11362.2.

The definition of a fully enclosed and secure structure requires a location in the rear yard, a minimum 10-foot setback from any property line, and a solid fence at least six feet in height, though that provision does not apply to cultivation occurring in a garage. The chapter was adopted by Ord. 415 in 2017.