Long Beach, CA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Section 21.32.110 explains how to read the commercial use tables, and Table 32-1 lists the adult-use cannabis dispensary as a retail service. The row shows Y in the CNP, CNA, CNR, CCA, CCP, CCR, CCN and CHW columns and N in the CS column. Under the section's key, Y means permitted by right, so no conditional use permit or administrative use permit is required at the zoning level in those eight districts. Section 21.32.120 then prohibits any use that Tables 32-0 and 32-1 do not specifically permit, which turns the N in the Commercial Storage district into a flat ban. The table's remarks column adds the condition that matters most: the use is "Subject to requirements in 5.92."

Chapter 5.92 supplies the location tests. Under Section 5.92.420(B), a dispensary premises cannot sit within 600 feet of a public or private school, a day care center, a playground or community center, or a library, and cannot sit within 1,000 feet of any other dispensary. It also cannot be inside a building that contains a dwelling unit, or on a dwelling unit within a zoning district, with one exception: ground floors of mixed-use buildings in the Downtown Planned Development District (PD-30). Section 5.92.430 measures each buffer as a straight horizontal line from the sensitive use's site boundary to the closest boundary of the proposed site, without regard to intervening structures. Youth centers carry a zero-foot buffer, so they block nothing.

Section 5.92.425 protects applicants and operators. If the Director of Financial Management has deemed an application complete, or a permit is already valid, a school, day care or library that opens nearby later does not defeat the site.

Delivery-only dispensaries have their own rows. Table 32-1 allows one of up to 750 sq. ft. of gross floor area as Y* and one over 750 sq. ft. as C*, a conditional use, in the same eight districts, with N in CS. The asterisk limits both to the second floor and above in the CNP, CNA, CNR, CCP, CCR and CCN zones, and Section 21.45.700 adds design standards, including a ban on street-facing blank walls over 20 feet and windows covering at least 25% of the street elevation.

Once open, a storefront dispensary may admit the public only from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., seven days a week, and must finish deliveries by 10:00 p.m. (Section 5.92.915). It cannot sell one customer more than 28.5 grams of cannabis or eight grams of concentrate in a business day (Section 5.92.945).