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. Commissioners discussed options including a 1,000-foot buffer between tobacco retailers, a 600-foot buffer from schools and youth-oriented facilities, limits on the total number of retailers per district, and a possible future ban modeled on neighboring Manhattan Beach.

Mayor Jim Light, who attended the meeting, described two enforcement paths the council has considered: requiring existing shops to apply for conditional use permits within a fixed period or removing businesses found to be selling banned or unlicensed products. “If they don't apply for that conditional use permit, then they can't be in business anymore,” the mayor said, and added the council has discussed limiting shops to one or two per district as a longer-term target.

Chairperson Reina Felty urged the commission to emphasize illegal sales in its advice to council and offered the city’s data sources for follow-up. “LA County and the Beach Cities Health District have really good data,” Felty said, and she offered to provide additional figures to the commission or staff for the council packet.

Discussion among commissioners ranged from supporting an immediate extension of the moratorium to questions about the pace and equity of enforcement. Commissioners asked whether the city would grandfather existing businesses, how many of the 15 current shops sell illegal products, and whether stricter retailer penalties (rather than penalties for buyers) should be included. Staff said those enforcement details would be considered at the council level and that some answers—such as the exact number of shops selling illegal products—would need to be supplied by city enforcement divisions.

Action taken: the commission voted to forward the subcommittee’s blue‑folder recommendation to City Council—supporting an extension of the moratorium and asking the council to emphasize enforcement against illegal flavored tobacco and unlicensed hemp products—with an added emphasis on illegal sales and retailer accountability. The motion passed on a voice vote; commissioners gave unanimous verbal assent.

What’s next: the City Council has the moratorium on its agenda for an upcoming meeting (tentatively in June). The Youth Commission requested staff compile additional data for council consideration and recommended that the next youth commission continue working on tobacco-retailer outreach and education.

Clarifying details reported at the meeting: the temporary moratorium was described in the commission packet as covering roughly “10 months and 15 days” to allow staff and council time to prepare a permanent ordinance; the city currently lists 15 smoke-shop retail locations; proposed ordinance elements discussed included a 1,000‑foot buffer between retailers and a 600‑foot buffer from schools or youth facilities; enforcement approaches discussed included conditional use permits and removal for verified violations.