2016-03-08 P & Z Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

PLANNING COMMISSION Kathi Donnelly -Cohen, Chair, , CITY OF SAINT PAIL 25 I -Vest Fora th Street Christopher B. Coleman, bla}nor Saint Pant, ►SIN 55102 Date: February 15, 2011 To:, Neighborhood Planning Committee From: Patricia James.651.266.6639 RE: Tobacco Shop Zoning Study ��tr�rl��et#nn Teleplione: 651-266-6562 Facsimile: 651-228-3314 On May 12, 2010, the City Council adopted Resolution 10-496, enacting a moratorium on the issuance of zoning permits or approvals (including site plans, lot splits, or plats), building permits, and occupancy certificates for any tobacco shop, and directed the Planning Commission to study the present zoning regulation of tobacco shops and, if needed, recommend amendments to the present zoning regulations and official controls. On August 11, 2010, follow-up interim ordinance 10-777 was adopted. It specifically referenced the growing number of businesses, called "hookah lounges," "hoorah bars," "`hookah caf6s," etc. that are being licensed as tobacco shops and offer "sampling" of tobacco products smoked in hookah pipes. The ordinance also noted that using a water pipe does not lessen the adverse health effects of smoking tobacco products. Regulatory Background 1. The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act was adopted in 1975. It prohibited smoking in many indoor places. In 2007, the Freedom to Breath Act expanded the previous act in order to more fully protect employees and the public from the health hazards of secondhand smoke, and it extended the smoking prohibition to nearly all indoor places (MN. Statutes Sec. 144.411-144.417). MN Statutes Sec. 144.4167, Subd. 4 allows an exemption for `{sampling" of tobacco products in tobacco products shops. while a definition of "tobacco products shop" is provided, the term "sampling" is not defined in the statute. However, it does pert local units of government to adopt more stringent regulations regarding exposure to secondhand smoke and to regulate outdoor smoking as well. Sec. 144.4167 PERMITTED SMOKING. Subd. 4. Tobacco products shop states: Sections 144.414 to 144.417 do not prohibit the lighting of tobacco in a tobacco products shop by a customer or potential customer for the specific purpose of sampling tobacco products. For the put poses of this subdivision, a tobacco products shop is a re Oil establishment with an entrance door opening directly to the outside that derives more than 90 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of loose tobacco, plants, or herbs and cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and other smoking devicesfor burning tobacco and related smoking accessories and in which the sale of other products is merely incidental "Tobacco products .shop" does not include a