Henrico County is laying out where recreational marijuana businesses will and will not be allowed to set up shop, becoming the first locality in the Richmond region to publicly release a regulatory framework ahead of Virginia's retail cannabis market launch. The proposal would ban marijuana retail stores and microbusinesses from most zoning districts, including every residential zone in the county, while requiring most of the businesses that are allowed to obtain a provisional-use permit.
According to Axios, that permit process would trigger a public Board of Supervisors review for nearly every retail store or microbusiness the county permits to operate. The Henrico Planning Commission is set to take up the zoning changes, which cover marijuana retail, cultivation, processing, testing and distribution businesses, and recommend approval, denial or further changes before the matter heads to the Board of Supervisors.
Buffer Zones Go Beyond State Minimums
Virginia state law already sets a 1,000-foot buffer requirement between marijuana businesses and hospitals, schools, colleges and child day programs. Henrico's draft rules would go further than those state requirements, per the same Axios report, adding religious institutions, playgrounds and public parks to that buffer list and applying the 1,000-foot restriction to retail stores and microbusinesses near daycares as well.
The county's proposal would also keep cultivation, testing, processing and transportation facilities at least 1,000 feet from residential zones. Every marijuana-related business in Henrico would need a county-approved crime-prevention and security plan, placing cannabis operators in the same category as gun stores, pool halls, gambling parlors, ATMs and businesses open between midnight and 6 a.m., all of which already face that requirement under county rules.
Existing Dispensaries Would Be Grandfathered In
Henrico already has two medical cannabis dispensaries that would be exempt from the new 1,000-foot siting restrictions if they're authorized for recreational sales down the line, since existing dispensaries would be grandfathered in. One is a Cannabist-brand location at Richmond BizSense reported opened at 4320 S. Laburnum Ave. in eastern Henrico; the other is a gLeaf-branded dispensary at 11190 W. Broad St. in Short Pump. Right now, only patients registered in the state's medical marijuana program can buy from either location.
The timeline tracks with Virginia's broader push toward a recreational market. The state's retail market is scheduled to open July 1, 2027, and the outlet's reporting on draft state regulations notes the Cannabis Control Authority will be able to award up to 350 retail marijuana-store licenses statewide, with applications expected to open by February 1 and permits issued in phases. Those state rules remain proposed rather than final, with the CCA board anticipated to approve a final draft in December.
Public Hearing Set for Mid-October
The Henrico Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the zoning amendments Thursday, October 15, and residents can submit comments in advance. If the commission acts, the proposal would then head to the Board of Supervisors for final consideration.
Henrico isn't alone in moving on cannabis zoning. Hanover County has drafted its own cannabis zoning change, and per Axios, the Hanover Board of Supervisors is expected to decide the week of October 12 whether to authorize a planning commission public hearing on it; Hanover County spokesperson Kristin Smith Dunlop was named in that reporting. Chesterfield plans to ask its planning commission to begin its own code-update process later in October, with Chesterfield County spokesperson Stephen Bays cited in the same coverage, and Chesterfield County's own guidance notes that staff generally attend community meetings to field questions about the zoning process. In Richmond, planning staff are actively working on regulations there, according to Richmond planning official Michael Hinkle, as cited by Axios.
