With a yearlong moratorium set to expire in September, the Newport Beach City Council this week gave its initial support for a plan to tighten smoke shop regulations.
The sweeping set of rules considered by the council during a meeting Tuesday included creating an annual permitting process for smoke shops overseen by the city’s police chief.
Under the proposed ordinance, new shops would be allowed to open only around John Wayne Airport and would be required to keep a distance of at least 500 feet from the nearest school.
City staff designed the regulations with public safety and limiting youth access to tobacco products in mind.
“We definitely had a lot of difficulty with the two smoke shops in [Corona del Mar], which were not just in violation of our local ordinances, but were selling illegal substances and also selling to minors,” said Mayor Lauren Kleiman.
“This ordinance will allow us to put operators on notice, [with] all the rules and regulations through the permitting process, so the expectations are clear.”
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The Newport Beach Planning Commission backed recommended regulations to more tightly control smoke shops before a temporary moratorium on such businesses expires in September.
The effort to adopt stricter rules on smoke shops began last September, when council members passed a 45-day moratorium on new businesses opening up in the city. The following month, the council extended the ban by one year to give city staff more time to develop regulations.
Newport Beach officials sought to follow in the policy footsteps of Anaheim, Orange, Buena Park and Costa Mesa, which have enacted similar requirements.
The Planning Commission reviewed the proposed regulatory changes in March and recommended council approval.
In addition to the annual permitting process, smoke shops would be prohibited from selling flavored tobacco, disguised vaping devices and controlled substances.
New shops opening in the airport area would have to be located at least 1,000 feet from other tobacco retailers, to prevent an oversaturation of such businesses. The proposed legislation also imposes a 500-foot distance from daycare centers, libraries and residential areas.
Newport Beach resident Jim Mosher doesn’t consider himself an advocate of tobacco retailers but questioned how the proposed regulations would play out in the airport area, which is currently being studied as a future housing village site.
“What happens as new parks, as new residential developments [come in] from the [housing] overlays?” he asked. “Those businesses which started after this ordinance, but before the housing was added, what happens to them? This only protects ones that are existing now.”
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The City Council unanimously backed a 45-day moratorium while Newport Beach considers how to further regulate smoke shops in the city.
Staff identified 10 existing tobacco retailers in the city, including businesses outside of the airport area and within the proposed 1,000-foot buffer zone. The city is poised to allow them to continue doing business if operators obtain a permit within 60 days of the new laws taking effect.
Council members Tuesday did not debate the new regulations or respond to Mosher’s concerns.
Before the vote, Kleiman sought stiffer penalties, including giving the city the power to revoke a smoke shop’s permit after a second violation. Her colleagues agreed and voted unanimously to move forward with the proposed regulations.
A second final vote on the changes is scheduled for June 9.
The council Tuesday also relaxed a citywide ban on cigar lounges, clearing a path for new businesses to open in Fashion Island and the airport area, so long as they maintain a 1,000-foot buffer between each other. Under the proposed legislation, such lounges would not be permitted to also operate as restaurants.
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Gabriel San Román is a feature writer for TimesOC. He previously worked at OC Weekly until the newspaper’s closing in late 2019. In 2023, San Román was part of the breaking news reporting team that was a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of the Lunar New Year mass shooting in Monterey Park.
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