Green Zone

"Green zone" is not a Michigan statutory term — it's the industry shorthand for the zoning overlay map a municipality adopts when it opts into adult-use or medical cannabis licensing, delineating where cannabis retailers, growers, processors, or microbusinesses can legally locate after applying required buffer distances and any additional zoning restrictions the municipality layers on.

The default statutory buffer under Michigan law is 1,000 feet from a school, measured parcel line to parcel line, but municipalities can reduce that distance by ordinance (commonly down to 500 feet or less), and many add their own additional buffers from parks, places of worship, or residential zoning that go beyond the state minimum. This means the actual buildable "green zone" varies enormously between municipalities that have both opted in — two adjoining opted-in cities can have very different available footprints.

Because green zone maps are locally adopted and can be amended, we verify current overlay boundaries and buffer measurement methodology directly with the municipality before marketing or underwriting a site rather than relying on a prior year's map.