Seal Beach city staff will bring a draft ordinance to regulate smoke shops, e-cigarettes and drug paraphernalia to a City Council meeting early next year. On Monday, Dec. 8, council members gave staff directions on what they wanted in regulations for such shops.
E-cigarettes are devices that resemble expensive pens that allow users to smoke liquid with varying degrees of nicotine in them.
Some former smokers used them to quit.
An urgency ordinance that was extended in September prohibits shops that specialize in selling e-cigarettes for 10 months and 15 days, ending in August of 2014. City staff had requested time to research the possible regulations for e-cigarettes and expressed concerns that e-cigarettes could be converted into drug paraphernalia.
However, the ordinance allowed liquor stores and other businesses to continue selling e-cigarettes.
One specialty store called eVolution would have opened in the Regency Center if the original urgency ordinance had not been adopted.
The urgency ordinance remains in effect.
The proposed draft will include the following regulations, most based on staff recommendations presented by Community Development Director Jim Basham:
- Selling e-cigarettes to minors would be prohibited.
- Smoke shops would be defined as a store with more than 16 square feet of surface area display space for tobacco-related products and electronic cigarettes.
- A smoke shop would have to get a conditional use permit to do business.
- Stores that have less than 16 square feet of display could sell e-cigarettes without a permit.
- Smoke shops would have to be 500 feet from other smoke shops, parks, churches and schools. Staff had recommended 1,000 feet, but Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said she preferred 500 feet. None of the other council members disagreed.
Deaton also argued against placing a restriction on smoke shops being near residential because every location she could think of backed up to residential property.
Councilman Michael Levitt said it was ironic that he could go into a supermarket and see a thousand feet of display space devoted to selling alcohol, but the council was treating e-cigarettes differently. He wondered why.
According to Basham’s report, state and federal laws regulate selling tobacco products to minors, but not electronic smoking devices. The report said businesses that would become “non-conforming” under the new permit requirement would have a year to apply for a CUP.
“Some existing businesses might reduce the size of their electronic smoking or tobacco displays rather than apply for a CUP,” Basham wrote.
“Well … it looks as though the fate of eVolution in Seal Beach is sealed (pun intended). I find the specific mention of space in the Pavillions Center curious,” said Vicki Powers, co-owner of the electronic smoke shop. “Is the word ‘betrayal’ a bit too strong? At the very least, the events of the last few months, and the final blow of the Staff Report sure feel personal. So much for not being targeted.”
But Chamber of Commerce representative Seth Eaker seemed pleased with the proposed rules.
“It is concerning that there seems to be an approach to perhaps over-regulation in staff’s recommendations,” Eaker said. However, he said council seemed responsive to the business community’s concerns on e-cigarette issues.
Eaker said the Chamber supported conditional use permits for smoke shops and encouraged the city to expedite their approval.
Basham’s report said some stores that currently sell e-cigarettes would not be able to obtain a permit.
“For example, staff believes that the cigarette display at 7-Eleven on Pacific Coast Highway already exceeds the 16-square foot threshold. The business would not be eligible for a CUP, however, because it is within 1,000 feet of Zoeter Field,” Basham wrote.
The staff report said the council could exempt existing stores from the permit requirement.
When the staff report became public on Thursday, Dec. 5, one of the owners of the never-opened eVolution store expressed frustration with the staff report.
