By Igor Studenkov | Bugle Staff
One month after approving Niles’ second smoke shop, the village’s board of trustees voted unanimously to impose a six-month moratorium on this type of business.
Like the existing moratoriums on gun shops and medical cannabis dispensing facilities, this moratorium is designed to give the village time to consider whether they should change the way those businesses are approved. Niles has been working on a zoning code rewrite since 2013. But, it may take less than six months to resolve the smoke shop issue.
According to trustee Denise McCreery, the first hearing on the revised zoning code is scheduled for May 23.
Under the current zoning code, any business that sells tobacco must get a special use permit. Niles had businesses that sold tobacco products before but the last two years saw applications for something that didn’t quite fit the mold. In 2014, Tony Chiba applied for a permit to open a “smoke shop,” which would sell hookahs, electronic cigarettes and accessories alongside cigars and cigarettes. In 2016, he applied for a permit for another smoke shop on the other side of town. In both cases, the permits were eventually granted.
McCreery told the Bugle that a moratorium was suggested by the Niles Building and Zoning Committee, which she currently chairs. There were concerns about whether the current regulations adequately address smoke shops like Chiba’s.
“The [new] zoning code is not approved; we felt it was important to take a step back and review it,” she said.
Niles Community Development Director Charles Ostman told the Bugle that in recent months a number of other business owners expressed interest in opening up smoke shops in the village. He said staff will look at whether they should still be treated as tobacco stores for the purposes of special use permit applications, or if it needs to be classified as a separate type of use.