West Covina, CA Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Section 26-113 of the West Covina Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 2519 on February 20, 2024, bars commercial cannabis activity everywhere in the city. The ban reaches storefront dispensaries, delivery-only operations, cultivation, distribution, manufacturing and testing labs alike, and it applies even when a cannabis use would be tucked inside a business that is otherwise allowed in its zone. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful for anyone to own, operate, engage with or manage a commercial cannabis activity in West Covina, to lease or offer to lease any facility or location for one, or to employ or work for a cannabis business, paid or as a volunteer.

The code also forecloses the administrative route around the ban: neither the City Council nor city staff may approve a use, interpretation, permit, license, certificate of occupancy, zoning code amendment, or General Plan amendment that would let a commercial cannabis use establish itself. Subsection (c) declares any violation a public nuisance that the city can abate under Chapter 15, Article IX, through civil action, criminal prosecution, or administrative abatement, and subsection (e) makes clear these remedies are not exclusive, so the city can pursue any other zoning-code enforcement tool alongside abatement. The prohibition covers commercial activity only; it does not reach personal, non-commercial cultivation for private use, which the same section addresses separately.