Youth commissioners urge council to extend Redondo Beach moratorium on smoke shops, press city to target illegal sales

The Redondo Beach City Youth Commission voted to forward its recommendation to the City Council to extend the city’s temporary moratorium on smoke shops and recommended council emphasize enforcement against illegal sales, Commissioner Sheets said during the commission’s June meeting.

Commissioner Sheets, who presented the proposal, said the moratorium would buy time—about 10 months and 15 days, as noted in the commission packet—for staff and council to draft a stronger ordinance to regulate smoke shops and other tobacco retailing. “They were selling illegal products,” Sheets said of some shops, and the moratorium would allow the city to hold retailers accountable while officials craft permanent rules.

Why it matters: commissioners and council members framed the issue as both a public-health and land-use concern. Sheets cited the California Tobacco Health Assessment tool and local patterns of retail clustering on corridors such as Artesia Boulevard.…