Walton County, FL Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

5 of the Walton County Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 2017-16 on May 23, 2017, creates the county's certificate-of-approval system for medical marijuana treatment and dispensing centers under the state's Compassionate Use Act. 5-12 caps the county at one certificate of approval north of the Inter-Coastal Waterway and one south of it, a limit tied expressly to the county's population of under 70,000 and its division by the Choctawhatchee Bay; the Board of County Commissioners may raise or lower that number only by amending the chapter.

5-14 governs where an authorized dispensary may actually operate: premises authorization is granted only for a location where retail sales of any kind are a permitted principal use under the applicable land use regulations, and the business cannot sit within 1,320 feet of any public, private or charter school, house of worship, licensed day care center or county park, measured along the shortest route of ordinary pedestrian travel. An operator that already held a certificate before a school, church, day care or park later moved within that buffer is not forced to relocate. 5-9. 5-17 requires all signage to meet Land Development Code standards and bars cartoon imagery.