Shoreline, WA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Shoreline regulates cannabis businesses through its zoning use tables and use-specific standards in Chapter 20.40 SMC rather than through a citywide ban. Section 20.40.374, 'General retail trade/services,' lists five uses barred from the Mixed-Use Residential (MUR-35', MUR-45' and MUR-70') zones: adult use facilities, smoke shops, cannabis sales, firearm sales and pawnshops. Separately, in the Point Wells Planned Area 4 (PA 4) zone created by Chapter 20.94 SMC, footnote 2 to Table 20.94.020A lists the general retail trade/services the zone does not allow, naming marijuana operations alongside adult use facilities, smoke and vape shops, firearm sales and vehicle sales, because PA 4 is reserved for the pedestrian-oriented, primarily residential Point Wells Subarea Plan.

Outside the MUR and PA 4 zones, Shoreline's Nonresidential Uses table (Table 20.40.130) and Station Area Uses table (Table 20.40.160) list four separate marijuana use types, Medical Cooperative, Retail, Processor and Producer, each carrying its own zone-by-zone permitted, conditional or special-use designation rather than a blanket rule. In the Station Area Uses table, which covers the MUR zones around the 145th and 185th Street light rail stations, a medical cooperative use is shown as permitted while the retail, processor and producer entries carry no permitted designation in any of the three station-area zones.

A specific parcel's eligibility for a marijuana retail, processor or producer license depends on that parcel's zoning designation and the applicable use table; a medical cooperative use, by contrast, appears as a permitted use across the residential and nonresidential use tables citywide, consistent with state law allowing cooperative medical marijuana gardens to operate from a qualifying patient's residence.