San Francisco, CA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Both buffers in Sec. 2(a)(5) are measured parcel to parcel, not door to door. The text bars the parcel containing the Cannabis Retail Use from lying within a 600-foot radius of a parcel containing an existing School, public or private, so the distance runs between property lines rather than storefronts, and a large school parcel pushes the buffer farther out than the school building alone would. The school buffer also yields to the state: it applies unless a State licensing authority specifies a different radius.

The competitor buffer works the same way. The retailer's parcel cannot sit within a 600-foot radius of a parcel for which the City's Office of Cannabis has issued a valid permit for a Cannabis Retailer or a Medicinal Cannabis Retailer. Because both permit types trigger it, an existing medicinal-only shop blocks a new adult-use retailer nearby just as another adult-use store would. The lone exception is co-location: retailers sharing the same business location can coexist if the space meets the 350-square-foot-per-use minimum. Day care centers and youth centers get no locally set minimum radius; a buffer applies to them only if the state licensing authority sets one. Sequencing matters too, because the section requires the Office of Cannabis permit before the applicant ever files with the Planning Department.