Yellowstone County, MT Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Q of the Zoning Code, part of Article 27-1000's use-specific standards for commercial uses. Q's separation rule is even reached. The rule reaches every dispensary "within the County jurisdictional zoning area," meaning the unincorporated county outside Billings, Laurel and Broadview. The core requirement is a 600-foot separation between a dispensary and any "protected use," defined to include religious institutions, primary and secondary educational facilities, public parks with a children's playground or playfield, day care centers, youth centers, and behavioral health facilities. The measurement runs from the exterior of the dispensary's occupied building space to the protected use's property line, not lot line to lot line, so a large commercial building can still fail the test even with generous setbacks elsewhere on the parcel.

The buffer is absolute: required separations are "not subject to reduction, adjustment, or variance," closing off the special-review or variance paths that apply to other standards in this code. The standards also police how dispensaries combine with other marijuana uses: a dispensary cannot be paired with a cultivation site, testing laboratory, manufacturing operation, or transportation business on the same site unless the separation distances can still be satisfied for the dispensary component, and all marijuana uses are classified as primary uses for zoning purposes. Q adopts those definitions unless the Zoning Code's own Section 27-1803 supplies a different one. Facilities that predate this separation standard and cannot meet it are grandfathered as nonconforming uses under Section 27-1500 rather than forced to close.