West Chester limits where smoke shops can go, after seeing pushback when one opened in a neighborhood
A corner store in a residential neighborhood became a brightly-lit smoke shop, worrying some residents.
West Chester will limit where future smoke and vape shops can open within the borough, after an innocuous corner store grandfathered into a residential neighborhood became a glowing, neon vape shop and brought pushback.
Council voted unanimously Wednesday to amend its zoning ordinance to allow smoke and vape shops by conditional use only in the town center and commercial services district. The goal is to considerably limit where the shops can appear, after a resident came to council with concerns about the sale of a small corner store to a new owner who put in a vape shop. Its bright lights flooded the resident’s home, and it was right by school bus stops.
The ordinance also defines smoke and tobacco shops as a retail store that primarily sells tobacco, CBD, THC, kratom, and vaping products. If at least 20% of the store’s display area is dedicated to the sale of smoking products, it’s considered a smoke shop.
The measure also outlined parameters including limits on how close the shops can be to one another and requiring them to be more than 500 feet away from schools, public recreation facilities, day cares, school bus stops, libraries, and religious institutions. The shops can’t be permitted on a lot or within a building that is also residential. The shops can’t sell food.
It also places restrictions on age, prohibiting those under the age of 18 from entering the shop without a parent or guardian, and requiring the business to verify ages. Anyone under 18 cannot be employed to work within the store.
“It helps us kind of separate incompatible uses, preserve the quality of life, health, safety, and welfare of our residents, particularly the vulnerable populations,” said council member Lisa Kearns. “It also helps us make certain our business district remains diverse, and vape shops don’t take over our commercial areas or neighborhoods.”
West Chester’s town center has at least five smoke and vape shops and the updated zoning won’t affect any of the existing businesses. Instead, the ordinance will keep others from coming into the roughly handful of other retail locations that are in residential areas, officials said.
“We in the borough are not trying to stifle business as much as we’re trying to create a balance so that families and residents can have the quality of life that they’re looking for,” said Nicole Scimone, council president.
A suggestion from the borough’s planning commission to carve cigar shops out as a separate entity was ultimately not included, as the amendment would require months before it came back to council for approval. At Wednesday’s meeting, Kearns urged the borough to adopt the amendment because she would “hate to see another vape shop open up where we don’t want it to be between now and then.”
Meanwhile, an ordinance seeking to regulate the sale of kratom — an herbal substance that can have effects similar to opioids and stimulants, according to the National Institutes of Health — was sent back to committee for further refinement. Kratom often appears in vape and smoke shops.
The ordinance would have prohibited the sale and public use of kratom and 7-OH, the synthetic of kratom, in the borough. It wouldn’t have prohibited the use or possession.
Supporters of the “leaf” version of the substance — which often appears as a supplement or a tea — opposed West Chester’s proposed ordinance and pressed council to tweak the language.
Some council members felt they were overstepping in passing a measure.
“I think this is a big lane violation, quite frankly. We are not the FDA,” said council member Brian Travis. “I asked point blank the chief of police if this even was on the radar. It’s not. Nothing’s come up. It’s not a problem right now locally, but we’re making it a problem.”
Council member Bernie Flynn said that, after talking with two soon-to-be West Chester University students, neither had heard of it. It made him wonder how popular it really was.
“I don’t think we should be in the business of telling adults what they can or cannot do,” he said.
Several bills in the state legislature have been introduced regarding the sale and use of kratom. In July, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced it planned to temporarily place the chemical found in the synthetic kratom, 7-OH, in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, alongside drugs like heroin and LSD. That won’t apply to the plant itself.
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