Zoning board approves Ingersoll vape shop with hours limit after neighborhood objections

The Des Moines Zoning Board of Adjustment on Thursday approved a conditional-use request to open a tobacco and vapor retail store at 2903 Ingersoll Avenue, voting 5–2 to adopt staff recommendations and add a condition limiting hours of operation to no earlier than 9 a.m. and no later than 11 p.m.

Frank Dunn, senior city planner, told the board the applicant proposes to occupy a roughly 2,600-square-foot tenant bay within a 4,400-square-foot retail building at the northwest corner of Ingersoll and 20th Street. Staff said the site has approximately 19 parking stalls in a rear lot plus about 7–8 on-street stalls, which staff calculated meets the ordinance parking minimums for the combined uses on the property. "Staff is supporting the applicant's request for tobacco store use," Dunn said during the presentation.

The applicant, which Dunn identified as Puff Cloud Smoke Shop (operator named in the staff report as Zahidullah Salazar Salarzi and property owner listed as Inglewood…