New Haven restricts smoke shops with new city ordinances
PHOTO | File image
The downtown New Haven skyline.
New Haven has placed new regulations on tobacco retailers in the city.
The Board of Alders Monday passed two new ordinances. One restricts the number of smoke shops via a zoning change. The second imposes a municipal licensing system on tobacco retailers in the city, in addition to the existing state level license.
The licensing change will require all smoke shops to be inspected regularly, and will impose a tiered system of fines if the business violates laws, for instance by selling to minors.
“Too many times in our community smoke shops and corner stores.. only get a slap on the wrist after repeated offenses,” Fair Haven Alder Frank Redente said at Monday’s meeting. “This ordinance gives the city the power to hold accountable such businesses and close them down if necessary.”
Redente was part of a working group that considered the changes.
The zoning changes require that any new businesses be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, houses of worship and public parks, and at least 3,000 feet from existing smoke shops.
New Haven currently has more than 200 establishments that are primarily tobacco retailers.
The ordinance also restricts the kinds of window displays that smoke shops can use. Items such as bongs, hookas, pipes, vapes and other paraphernalia would no longer be allowed to be displayed in view of a public right of way.
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