Harrisonburg zoning ordinance on tobacco and vape shops worries business owners

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – The recent zoning ordinance considered by the Harrisonburg City Council regarding the locations of tobacco and vape shops in relation to schools has local business owners concerned about the images being associated with their businesses.

This past week, the city of Harrisonburg approved a zoning ordinance prohibiting tobacco and vape shops from opening a location within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare. The action comes after the city received various concerns regarding the locations of shops in the area and the potential influences or effects they could have on youth.

“There are plenty of studies that point to concerns with minors seeing some of these advertisements and different things like that that might influence their opinions,” Michael Parks, director of communications for the city of Harrisonburg, said. “In light of the concerns that we were hearing from the public, and in light of some of that research, we started to take a look and see if this was something we needed to address with city action.”

After hearing about the new ordinance, owners of tobacco and vape shops in the city have become concerned about the reputation it may be giving their businesses and want to clear up any misconceptions people may have about how they operate. Those like Mohammed Alshammari, owner of Smoke Town located across from James Madison University’s Atlantic Union Bank Center, said they are passionate about what they sell and do not want to cause harm in the community.

“It’s giving us a bad reputation,” Alshammari said. “Because of what is going on out there and because of all these minors smoking, it’s even harder for us to get a location. You try to talk to a landlord, but as soon as they hear ‘smoke shop,’ the whole stereotype comes to mind and they want to shoot it down. We want to stop this problem too.”

Alshammari said these zoning ordinances may not be the best way to combat the concerns of the public and the city should instead focus on addressing and punishing stores or individuals who knowingly sell to minors. He said he believes the location of the shop is less important than increasing regulation on how it operates.

“I am not necessarily with or against the decision — I just don’t think it will be as effective as they think it will be,” Alshammari said. “For example, the punishment right now is a $500 fine to the owner of the store, but that’s not going to stop the store from selling to minors. I think, to totally stop the issue, they should enforce punishment on the customer, the employee and the owner, because then they don’t want to make the sale anymore if they are affected as well.”

Pre-established locations within the 1,000-foot regulations of the new ordinance will now be considered “non-conforming” and go through a grandfathering process that will allow them to operate normally under this ordinance without being forced to relocate. However, they will not be allowed to expand their locations or open a new shop within the designated zones.

The city of Harrisonburg hopes this ordinance will address the concerns of the public while remaining fair and equitable toward small businesses throughout the area.

Copyright 2024 WHSV. All rights reserved.