Smoke shops throughout Fresno will now face more stringent regulations with a new ordinance that was passed by the Fresno City Council on Thursday.
The council passed the ordinance on a 4-1-1 vote. Council President Mike Karbassi voted against it, while Councilmember Tyler Maxwell abstained. Councilmember Nick Richardson was absent from Thursday’s meeting because he was overseas for his military service.
Flashback: Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Annalisa Perea and Nelson Esparza attempted to push through the ordinance last month but found opposition from Karbassi, Maxwell and Richardson.
- The bill would have limited the number of smoke shops per each council district to seven.
- The bill’s authors said smoke shops are often conducting illegal activity, including selling illegal cannabis and guns, as well as selling to teenagers.
The big picture: The measure came before the council once again on Thursday, this time with new Councilmember Brandon Vang sitting on the dais.
- Vang proved to be the deciding vote needed to push it through from the previous attempt.
- Smoke shops will now have to apply for a conditional use permit from the city, with the number of storefronts capped at seven per district.
- The city currently has around 90 registered smokeshops in the city, with others operating without a license. This ordinance will bring the total down to 49.
- Smoke shops will also not be allowed within 1,000 feet of sensitive areas, such as schools and day cares.
What they’re saying: Karbassi and Maxwell asked the council to postpone a vote and come back with a different proposal, with Maxwell noting how Clovis addresses the issue.
- Last year, Clovis instituted an ordinance requiring tobacco retailers to apply for a license instead of going the conditional use permit route.
- “One one hand we have a proposed policy that would put half of the businesses that have [a] license out of a job overnight – landlords are on the hook for figuring out how their rent is going to be paid,” Maxwell said. “The policy doesn’t do anything to address the bad actors with no license operating currently, beyond the tools already at our disposal. It costs a significant amount of money for small business operators. And I believe it’s heavy-handed in terms of the violations that would result in a CUP revocation.”
- But with the support of Vang, the bill’s sponsors were able to push through without a delay. Arias said that he is sure the council would support another potential ordinance in the future if one is proposed that is better than the one passed Thursday.
- “This proposal focuses on the area of problem, which is the self-identified smoke shops that currently have zero rules,” Arias said. “And after two years of us working on this policy, after a year of inspection, after reinspections of their establishments, our code enforcement, police department and attorney general are still finding illegal products in reinspections in the same places that we just told them two months ago they couldn’t be selling marijuana and they couldn’t be selling tobacco to kids.”
- Arias said he appreciates that the city is trying to be business friendly, but added that some of the smoke shops “are no better than your street corner drug dealer.”
- “Just because they bother to pay somebody a lease and be in a brick and motor doesn’t give them immunity to following the rules everybody else follows,” Arias said.
