Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Health Regulation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Clinton council tightens rules for tobacco and hemp retail: 1,000-foot buffers, grandfathering, measurement clarification
Summary
Council adopted a set of related text amendments to the land development code to define tobacco/hemp retail, allow the use in highway commercial with conditions, and add special-use requirements including a 1,000-foot buffer from schools, religious institutions and parks; existing businesses are grandfathered.
The Clinton City Council adopted a sequence of staff-drafted text amendments to the city’s land development ordinance addressing tobacco and hemp retail.
City staff said the package first updates definitions, then adds tobacco and hemp retail as a permitted use in the highway commercial zone (subject to conditions), and finally sets special-use requirements. The special requirements include a 1,000-foot buffer measured in a straight line from the closest point of the parcel where a tobacco or hemp retail business is located to the listed protected uses: religious institutions, schools, day care centers/homes, libraries, public parks and recreational facilities. Staff proposed—and the council agreed to—clarify the measurement language so it reads from the location of the tobacco and hemp business rather than referencing “electronic gaming operation” language left from another section.
Staff said existing tobacco or hemp retail facilities would be grandfathered in at their current location and size; the grandfathering would not allow future expansions without meeting the new requirements. Council members said the city intends to enforce laws fully and directed the manager and attorney to take necessary action to support enforcement. At one point a council member referenced a recent raid and said the city would “force the laws to the fullest extent” as part of policy going forward. Staff told the council that the definitions mirror practices used by other municipalities.
Council closed the public hearings on the related text amendments and voted to adopt the changes; staff confirmed the amendments become effective immediately.
Votes on each component were taken at the meeting; the ordinance code sections or ordinance numbers were not provided on the record.
