Owensboro, KY Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

The joint Owensboro-Daviess County Zoning Ordinance folds dispensary siting into Appendix F Section 8.4, Note 60 rather than a stand-alone cannabis chapter of the Municipal Code. Beyond the 1,000-foot school and daycare buffer that Note 60(a) shares with cultivators, Note 60(b) adds a one-mile spacing rule between any two approved dispensaries and, in unincorporated Daviess County, caps the count at one dispensary per rural community; the ordinance does not repeat the per-community cap for dispensaries proposed inside the City of Owensboro's own limits. Note 60(c) requires every dispensary to operate entirely indoors, out of any mobile or temporary structure, and in compliance with the state's KRS and KAR cannabis regulations. Note 60(d) sets fixed hours, no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and no later than 8:00 p.m., and Note 60(e) bars a dispensary from sharing an address with a cultivation, processing site, or a medicinal cannabis practitioner's office.

Signage is limited under Note 60(f) to a single monument or pole-mounted sign, capped at 30 feet in height and 150 square feet of sign face, with no temporary, wall-mounted, or window signs and no animated or digital displays. Note 60(g) requires a Commonwealth of Kentucky license before the dispensary can open, and Note 60(h) excludes dispensaries from the Downtown Overlay District defined in Article 21, regardless of whether the underlying B-2 zone would otherwise permit the use. The Zoning Administrator checks spacing, hours, and the overlay exclusion before issuing a building permit.