Trenton, NJ Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Section 146-46A sets Trenton's dispensary buffers. No cannabis dispensary may sit within 1,000 feet, door-to-door walking distance, of another dispensary, excluding Alternative Treatment Centers that only sell medical cannabis; that distance shrinks to 500 feet for dispensaries properly zoned in the Roebling Redevelopment Area, called the Entertainment District, or the Business A District southwest of Route 206, called the Downtown District. Established medical Alternative Treatment Centers cannot expand into adult-use sales if doing so would violate the buffer. Dispensaries must also stay at least 750 feet, door-to-door, from any school where children are routinely present, though co-located daycares inside mixed-use commercial or industrial buildings do not count, and at least 250 feet from the front entrance of a place of worship.

Standalone cultivation centers and manufacturing facilities are exempt from these buffers if properly zoned Industrial, secured, and without a dispensary, public access or visible signage on-site (§ 146-46A(5)). Where competing land-use applications for the same license class arrive close together, the City reviews the first complete and compliant application before any others (§ 146-46B). Beyond zoning, § 146-47 makes City Council the local licensing authority: every cannabis establishment needs a Council Resolution of Local Support before the State will issue its license, and Council may appoint a Cannabis Advisory Committee of at least three residents and two local business owners to advise on community-benefit terms.