Overview
- The three-part package introduced Monday defines a smoke shop as any retailer devoting at least 10% of floor space to tobacco, vaping or cannabis items.
- Proposed zoning rules would prohibit smoke shops within 500 feet of schools, parks or recreation centers and within 1,500 feet of another smoke shop.
- The Display Luminance Bill would cap storefront lighting visible from public streets at 5,000 candelas per square meter by day and 500 at night.
- A resolution seeks Legislative Investigations Committee hearings on shop operations and rapid proliferation, with one councilmember citing 13 openings in a three-block stretch in nine months and alleging some sell laced products.
- City leaders frame the effort as protecting youth and neighborhoods while supporting lawful businesses, pointing to past actions including a $7.5 million judgment against Juul and a separate accusation against Zyn’s owners.