How to Get a Sacramento California Marijuana Business Permit

City of Sacramento Accepting Marijuana Business Applications

In California, local governments have authority over the regulation of marijuana businesses. This means cities and counties are able to ban or allow the operation of marijuana businesses within their borders. Therefore, getting city approval is required before applying for a license with the state to become fully able to operate as a legal marijuana business.

The City of Sacramento currently allows for the operation of dispensaries, cultivation, nonvolatile manufacturing and testing within specific zones of the city and under a set of regulations. In Sacramento, two permits are required in order to operate a marijuana business: a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), and a Business Operating Permit (BOP). The CUP is for the property, and the BOP is for the business operation itself. Applicants must obtain these permits before applying for a marijuana business permit.

There are different types of marijuana businesses allowed in Sacramento, including:

Cultivation

There are three different types of cultivation permits available in the City of Sacramento:

Class A for indoor cultivation of no more than 5,000 sq. ft. of total canopy size
Class B for indoor cultivation of no more than 10,000 sq. ft. of total canopy size
Class C for indoor cultivation sites up to 22,000 sq. ft. of total canopy size

Sacramento requires you to submit several business/operational plans as part of your application. To draft your application with our business plan templates, click the links outlined below.

Required Plans for Sacramento Cultivation Application:

Distribution

There are two different types of distribution permits available in the City of Sacramento:

Distribution Center for a site over 2,500 square feet, intended for businesses with the sole function of distributing and transporting products through the supply chain
Distribution Service for a site of 2,500 square feet or less, intended as an add-on or secondary permit that will allow an entity already holding another type of cannabis permit to distribute their own products through the supply chain

Sacramento requires you to submit several business/operational plans as part of your application. To draft your application with our business plan templates, click the links outlined below.

Required Plans for Sacramento Distribution Application:

Manufacturing

The use of volatile solvents in manufacturing is banned in the City of Sacramento. Only Nonvolatile manufacturing operations are allowed. The City of Sacramento uses a tiered manufacturing permit structure. There are three different permits available under the tiered structure:

Type 1 for all aspects of manufacturing
Type N for infusion, production of edibles (may also perform Type P activities)
Type P for Packaging and Labeling

Sacramento requires you to submit several business/operational plans as part of your application. To draft your application with our business plan templates, click the links outlined below.

Required Plans for Sacramento Manufacturing Application:

Dispensaries

Medical (Storefront) Cannabis Dispensaries

Currently, a moratorium is in place for storefront dispensaries in the City of Sacramento, and no applications are being accepted at this time.

Adult-Use (Recreational) Dispensaries

The City Council approved the retail of Adult Use cannabis in Sacramento for qualified permitted storefront dispensaries only. A modification of the CUP and BOP is required to add Adult Use to their existing operations.

Retail (dispensary) permits are only available for non-storefront, delivery-only dispensaries. Delivery-only dispensaries are medical and adult use retail stores that are not open to the public and only deliver products to patients and/or consumers.

Delivery

Cannabis delivery may be approved on a case-by-case basis for existing dispensaries or by new non-storefront, delivery-only dispensaries. Only one type of delivery permit is available in the City of Sacramento.

Sacramento requires you to submit several business/operational plans as part of your application. To draft your application with our business plan templates, click the links outlined below.

Required Plans for Sacramento Delivery-Only Dispensary Application:

Testing Laboratories

There is only one type of permit available in the City of Sacramento for the testing of cannabis products. Testing laboratories can be done as a by-right activity and does not require a CUP, but a BOP is still required to operate a testing laboratory.

Sacramento requires you to submit several business/operational plans as part of your application. To draft your application with our business plan templates, click the links outlined below.

Required Plans for Sacramento Testing Laboratories Application