Town Planning Commission Discusses Regulation of Tobacco, Smoke, and Vape at Work Session

According to Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke at a work session for the Front Royal Planning Commission beginning at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6 in the Town Hall at 102 East Main, it will be staff’s recommendation that the commission forward to Town Council a text amendment to zoning ordinance that would bring the proliferation of vape shops under tighter regulation, and recommend to the council that they adopt a by-right mechanism to enforce it.

Front Royal Planning Commission prepares to commence a work session on Wednesday, November 6. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

A by-right mechanism would keep enforcement administrative. In other words, staff would enforce whether a vape shop complies with the code. The other option, initially preferred and then requested by the council, would be a special-use permit which the council would legislate on a case-by-case basis. Either way, the text amendment under consideration concerns Chapter 175 of the zoning ordinance, where regulations pertaining to tobacco, smoke, or vape shops would be given greater definition. The new code and its performance standards would apply to such establishments located within the C-1 and C-3 commercial districts within town limits. The goal for the planning commission on Wednesday evening was to determine whether there might be a consensus to recommend a by-right mechanism or a special-use permit mechanism.

Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke assists the chair in moderating a discussion of the regulation of tobacco, smoke, or vape shops.

The proliferation in recent years of vape shops in town limits is a very personal subject for many who live in Front Royal and want to see the local charm respected and preserved. There is a sense that the garish lights and habit-forming products that these establishments entail are not in keeping with the ethos of the canoe capital of Virginia. Even a public servant like Councilwoman Amber Morris who takes a strong free market stance has admitted that the situation is so exacerbated, with roughly seventeen vape shops in town limits, that governmental regulation is necessary. Mayor Lori Cockrell has speculated in the past that the retail space these shops are commanding could be used for a variety of other attractions. Of course, the vape shops that are currently in business have been grandfathered in and will not be required to change their location if the new code goes into effect, even though the amendment will establish standards such as a requirement that a tobacco, smoke, or vape shop shall not be located within one thousand feet of any property containing a religious institution, libraries, parks, community centers, public or private schools or any child or daycare center.

Town Attorney George Sonnett underlined for the commissioners the importance of going forward on a rational basis for the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The common denominator throughout the text amendment is the protection of minors, in regulating the proximity of these shops to institutions frequented by minors or the requirement that the shops prominently display signs forbidding the entrance of minors without adult guardians. So, the question is, how would the performance standards be codified and enforced under the separate mechanisms? With by-right, Kopishke explained in a phone interview, there is a codified body of regulations with which staff can respond more immediately to compliance issues while a lengthier legislative process would be necessary in the case that the council considers special-use permits individually with the power to revoke them if the standards imposed by the council are not being met.

Therein lies the rub. A special-use permit process, according to Kopishke, would be more arbitrary. While an administrative enforcement process would adhere strictly to the regulations of the text amendment, the legislative approach would allow for exceptions. For instance, on an individual basis, staff would be approaching the council with an application and a recommendation, but a particular vape shop could be allowed to omit something as grave as the one thousand feet regulation if the council deems it appropriate. Kopishke sees this as becoming an increasingly complicated process as exceptions proliferate. Could a special-use culture be more insidious than the problem the amendment was originally designed to address?

Although it was initially scheduled to go to a public hearing at the commission’s November 20 regular meeting, since the commissioners were divided on the recommendation and felt a need for further consideration, this item will receive a public hearing at the commission’s December 18 regular meeting. Having discussed other ordinance rewrites pertaining to zoning districts and the zoning map, the commission adjourned.