The Park Ridge City Council voted to regulate tobacco and vape shops after complaints about signage at some of the stores, now requiring shop owners to get a special use permit and subjecting them to stricter oversight.
Park Ridge officials had been discussing the matter since April, after the mayor said he had received complaints about garish signs at some of the local tobacco and vape stores.
“I’m not saying we can’t have them,” Maloney said of tobacco shops at that time. “But … it just stinks to drive by and be like ‘Oh, another vape shop,’ and not have a chance to weigh in on that as council.”
What the City Council approved at its Oct. 21 meeting doesn’t put a new signage rule in effect for existing shops, but each new store will have to get city approval – including from the Planning and Zoning Commission and the council.
Therefore, signs and the building façade would have to be approved, and they would come up for review. Ultimately, the special use zoning permit could get revoked if sign rules are violated, according to the ordinance.
“Really the change is just the process to receive approval to open a tobacco retail shop,” Drew Awsumb, director of community preservation and development, told Pioneer Press after last Monday’s meeting. “Whereas the process used to be entirely administrative, now it must follow the special use permit process. That means the zoning approval must be legally noticed, advertised in the newspaper and appear in a public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commission. Then ultimately, the City Council votes on the approval of the specific store application.”
Presently, there are 21 vape and tobacco sellers in Park Ridge, a count that includes gas stations and businesses that sell other things, city officials explained. Also, prior to the Oct. 21 vote, the city considered smoke products the same as other retail goods. But no longer.
The change will not impact stores already open, and there are currently no new stores seeking to sell tobacco. So the immediate effect is expected to be nil.
“This will not apply to existing stores that are already open. They may continue to legally operate. The regulations only pertain to brand new businesses applying to open,” said Awsumb.
He explained the only real change that new store operators will see is additional paperwork and a review by the City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Alderman John Moran said he supports the rule change, though he viewed it more as a preventative measure than a corrective one. He noted that, historically, there had not been a problem. But in recent years, he said, newer shops opened with garish displays.
“It’s unfortunate that, as a result of these newer businesses that have popped up that seem to be run a little bit differently, … we have to do this,” Moran said. “Given the situation that we’re in, if more of these were to pop up, then I think more people in town would want to know why we haven’t done anything about it.”
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.
