Yakima, Washington · A social-equity proposal to the City Council

Let Yakima's own licensees open — with the buffer the law already allows.

A narrow, lawful fix: align the cannabis buffer with State law, 1,000 ft → 100 ft. Schools and playgrounds stay at 1,000. Not one new store is added.

José & the Ulloa brothers — Washington State social-equity retail licensees, raised in the Yakima Valley.

At a glance — the whole case on one screen

Everything you need to decide, before you read another word.

THE ASK
Reduce the cannabis buffer from 1,000 ft to 100 ft for the six uses State law allows — child care, parks, transit centers, libraries, arcades, recreation centers. Schools and playgrounds stay at 1,000 ft.
IT'S LEGAL
The Legislature already wrote 100 ft into law as a lawful floor (RCW 69.50.331; WAC 314-55-050). The Council isn't changing State law — only using an option the State granted.
THE SAFETY QUESTION IS SETTLED
A government does not authorize a distance it believes endangers children. East Wenatchee adopted 100 ft in January 2025; its environmental review found no impact on public safety or health, and the store it allowed has operated 21-and-over ever since.
THE STUDY
0 open at 1,000 ft1 at 500 ft1 at 300 ft9 at 100 ftTwelve real Yakima sites, measured against the City's own determinations. 500 ft and 300 ft open the same near-zero as today.
WHY IT MATTERS HERE
The State placed two social-equity licenses in Yakima — the Ulloa brothers' — and required them to open in this county. Three-plus years of compliant addresses have been erased, most often by an in-home daycare that's confidential and shown on no public map.
FAIRNESS
Within 100 ft of that same daycare, the law already allows a gun shop, a pharmacy, a tobacco shop, a vape shop. A 21-and-over, ID-scanned cannabis store must stay 1,000 ft back.
IT ADDS ZERO STORES
Yakima is capped at seven retailers (5 + 2 social-equity). This changes an address rule, not the number of stores — and a daycare that opens later is grandfathered, so nothing is destabilized.
WHERE IT STANDS
The Planning Commission recommended a reduction on September 9, 2026. It now comes to the City Council — the body that adopts it.

The detail — the map, the study, the record — is below. But the decision is right here.

See it for yourself

Four chapters. Click through them and watch the city open.

The whole story is on the map: the minefield that denied me, the invisible daycares, the City's 500-ft recommendation, and where 100 feet would finally let a licensee open. Tap 1 → 2 → 3 → 4.

Navy is where the State buffer forbids a store; green is the only zoning where one is allowed. Schools and playgrounds stay locked at 1,000 ft. This shows only the public buffers — the City also blocks sites for in-home daycares no map is allowed to show.

Why it's been this hard — three walls

It isn't one obstacle. It's three, stacked — and only one is the Council's to fix.

1 · Last in line

Yakima's stores were licensed years before the equity round. By the time these licenses existed, the sites that work were taken — not just the best ones, the only ones.

2 · The buffer

Commercial real estate remains — but the 1,000-ft buffers, especially the in-home daycares hidden in the neighborhoods, put nearly all of it off-limits. This is the wall the Council can lower.

3 · Willing owners

Some sites that remain have sat empty for four years — yet the owners won't lease to cannabis. That's their right. But it shrinks an already-narrow map to almost nothing.

The Council can't move the other stores or change an owner's mind. It can do the one thing that widens the map — reduce the buffer — so that among the sites and owners that are willing, some land finally qualifies.

Why the daycares block these sites

The buffer reaches past the storefronts into the neighborhoods.

They sit in the residential blocks

Yakima's commercial streets are thin ribbons with houses directly behind them. An in-home daycare is licensed inside a private home — in that residential band. A 1,000-ft buffer reaches into it; a 100-ft buffer stays on the commercial lot, where a store belongs.

And they're invisible

In-home daycare locations are legally confidential. City staff have said the data "changes daily" and they can't see it either — so a compliant applicant is aiming at a target no one is allowed to look at, that moves without notice.

The procedure — by the book

This isn't a request to skip a step. It's the step the law already provides.

Everything requested is written into RCW 69.50.331 and WAC 314-55-050, and East Wenatchee ran this exact process in January 2025 with no adverse safety finding.

The ask

What the City Council can do.

  1. Adopt 100 feet for the six uses State law allows — schools and playgrounds stay at 1,000.
  2. Begin the environmental review and state notice now, and request expedited review so no time is lost.
  3. Set the public-hearing date, so this moves.

Cannabis is medicine to a great many people in this valley. The State asked the Ulloa brothers to open here and granted the licenses to do it — and Yakima has gone without that tax revenue for four years. This is not a request to bend a rule. It's a request to use the one the law already wrote, so the city's own social-equity licensees can finally open. Yakima, your brothers are ready. Help us open.

Where it stands

The latest on the buffer.

This page updates as the process moves.