Nicholasville, KY Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Chapter 13 of the Nicholasville Code of Ordinances, titled Medical Cannabis Business Operations, contains two sections. Section 13-2 is the one that answers where these businesses can locate: all medical cannabis businesses are hereby allowed to operate within the city limits of the City of Nicholasville, in areas zoned B-2 or otherwise consistent with the zoning ordinances of the City of Nicholasville. There are two routes to a lawful location in the text, a B-2 zone or any area consistent with the city's zoning ordinances, and the section does not make the B-2 zone the only permitted district.

The section does not use the word dispensary; it covers all medical cannabis businesses. Section 13-1 supplies the vocabulary by adopting the definitions within KRS 218B.010 as if set forth in the chapter and as relevant to this chapter, so the business types the city allows follow the state definitions.

Chapter 13 prints no distance buffer from schools or churches, no operating hours, no local license fee and no cap on the number of businesses. Those details, if any exist, sit in the zoning ordinances the section points to rather than in Chapter 13 itself. The word B-2 appears in the Code export only in § 13-2, so the B-2 district standards are not printed there.

Do not confuse Chapter 13 with § 12-11, a separate section that prohibits possession or sale of named synthetic cannabinoids (AM, CP, JWH and HU cannabinoids). Trafficking under § 12-11(3)(a) carries a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment of not more than 12 months, and possession under (3)(b) carries a fine of not more than $250 or imprisonment of not more than 30 days.