Planning commission unanimously recommends denying vape and smoke shop permit on Bee Cave Parkway

The Bee Cave Planning and Zoning Commission on Feb. 3, 2026 voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council deny a special use permit for a proposed vape and smoke shop at 300827 South Ranch Road 620, following a public hearing in which residents raised enforcement and neighborhood-planning concerns.

Staff planner Sean LaPotta presented the application and described the site as an existing roughly 3,000-square-foot building at the intersection of State Highway 71/620 and Bee Cave Parkway, with about eight parking spaces, septic service and an on-site metal building and fenced area. LaPotta said the city's Unified Development Code requires a specific use permit for a vape/smoke shop in the C-3 (regional commercial) zoning district and identified UDC development standards the property would have to meet, including parking (approximately one space per 250 square feet, implying about 12 spaces for the proposed area), minimum landscape requirements and an eight-foot screening wall.

Resident Jennifer Richter told the commission she opposed the permit, citing legal and enforcement uncertainty around vape and hemp-derived THC products after recent state and federal rule changes. "Businesses built around shifting legal and banking restrictions create land use uncertainty that can affect tenant stability, vacancy risk, and enforcement demands," she said, and added that limited local resources for enforcement and costly laboratory testing make ongoing compliance monitoring difficult. Richter also cited secondary impacts reported in other Texas municipalities—calls for service, loitering, youth access violations and late-night disturbances—and argued that adding another such business would further concentrate similar retailers along local corridors.

Applicant Gopi Chen Anh said the proposed business would be retail-only, would admit only customers 21 and older and would verify IDs at the door. "We are gonna comply with all the Texas law and ordinances," Chen Anh told the commission, adding the tenant occupied 1,800 square feet of the existing building and had leased the property before the SUP requirement was implemented.

After a short executive session with the city attorney on legal considerations, the commission returned to open session. Commissioner Davis moved and Commissioner Vickery seconded a motion to recommend the City Council deny the SUP; the motion passed unanimously. The chair had opened the meeting by noting a quorum of five commissioners (Risca, Vickery, Davis, Tedder and the chair).

Votes at a glance: Item 5 (Special Use Permit — 300827 S. Ranch Rd. 620): Motion to recommend denial to City Council; mover: Davis; second: Vickery; outcome: recommendation to deny (unanimous). Item 6 (Westlake Dermatology site plan, 14418 State Highway 71): motion to table passed unanimously.

The commission's recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for final action; the council date was not specified during the meeting.