Commission backs new vape-shop limits and restricts neon/LED window signs to one 4-sq.-ft. sign

The Lebanon Planning Commission on Feb. 24 voted to forward new regulations on specialty smoke and vape shops to city council and approved an amendment limiting neon/LED window signs to a single sign up to 4 square feet per tenant.

Planner-presented language would add "specialty smoke and vape shops" to the commercial-activities list and to conditional-use lists in multiple commercial zoning districts; the proposal defines a specialty shop as any retail shop with more than 25% of its public sales floor dedicated to the defined products and would limit the number of such specialty shops to one per 10,000 population (using the latest decennial U.S. Census). Staff said their initial count found at least 23 existing establishments citywide; those existing shops would be allowed to continue but if a shop closed and did not restart within 30 months it would lose eligibility to return under the new cap.

On neon and LED window signage, the commission debated sizes. The proposer had originally recommended a 14-by-7-inch maximum, but commissioners amended the motion to allow a single neon/LED sign per tenant with a maximum of 4 square feet (for example, a 2-by-2-foot sign). The commission passed both items: the vape-shop language was forwarded with a positive recommendation, and the neon/LED amendment passed as amended (the final motion passed with one abstention recorded). A staff representative said the 4-square-foot limit balances readability with the city’s desire to limit public-facing neon/LED displays.

Both measures are recommendations to city council; existing businesses and grandfathering provisions will be addressed in the ordinance language brought to council.