La Plata County, CO Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Chapter 7 of the La Plata County Code requires a person to obtain a local license before starting a marijuana business, and it names the Board of County Commissioners of La Plata County as the local licensing authority. The local license is conditional on state approval. If the state licensing authority denies an initial application, or fails to issue a license within eighteen (18) months of conditional approval by the local authority, the local license is deemed revoked.

Location is decided separately, through the Land Use Code. Section 66-7 lists marijuana facilities under section 73-14 among the developments that need a major land use permit. Section 73-14.II applies the location standards to every marijuana facility. Subsection D bars a marijuana facility from a dwelling unit or from any building with a portion classified as residential under the building code.

Subsection H keeps a marijuana facility out of a three (3) mile ring around the nearest incorporated portions of the town of Ignacio, measured in a direct line from the closest point of the project boundary to the closest lot or parcel incorporated in the town. Subsection I sets the same three (3) mile ring around Bayfield, fixed at the time a complete application for a new license is accepted by the county. Bayfield's ring does not apply to a medical marijuana cultivation facility or a retail marijuana cultivation facility. Those cultivation facilities still cannot go inside Bayfield's future growth boundary, as shown on the map approved by the Board of Trustees of the Town of Bayfield and kept on file with the county's GIS department.

A marijuana store is open to the public only between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. A products manufacturer must hold the appropriate retail food establishment license from La Plata County Public Health when the law requires one. Most of the county outside the Animas Valley is unzoned, so these standards apply countywide through the Land Use Code. In the Animas Valley, section 65 makes the stricter standard control if it conflicts with section 73-14. The school and childcare buffers are covered on the buffer zones page.