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Norwalk hearing officer imposes $10,000 fine on Westport Avenue business for operating prohibited vape/tobacco use
Summary
At a May 20 Norwalk zoning citation hearing, Hearing Officer Robert Maslin found that a business at 336 Westport Avenue was operating as a vape/tobacco shop in a location now prohibited by recent zoning changes and imposed a $10,000 fine after staff testimony and photo evidence.
Hearing Officer Robert Maslin on May 20 found that a business at 336 Westport Avenue was operating as a vape and tobacco shop in a location now prohibited by the city's updated zoning code and imposed a $10,000 fine.
Deputy Zoning Inspector Ian Hall testified under oath that photos taken the morning of the hearing and past police reports and news coverage showed the site advertising and operating as a smoke/vape/tobacco shop. Hall told the hearing an attorney for the respondents had proposed removing vape products and converting the site to a permitted retail use, but "as it stands this morning ... it's still being operated as a big tobacco store." He said the office had issued earlier notices and citations and that the current citation reflected changes in the zoning code that removed a prior square-footage test, making some business operations categorically disallowed in certain zones.
Maslin reviewed the enforcement record and the code language. He found the vape-shop (use) violation sustained but concluded the signage violation as cited was not established in the record. He explained the penalty computation: two violations at $150 per day over the 92 days counted from the citation produced a maximum theoretical fine of $13,800. "The maximum possible fine is 13,800, and I'm gonna reduce that to 10,000," Maslin said, and he imposed a $10,000 fine to resolve the matter.
Hall identified an existing permitted tobacco shop (Galaxy Tobacco) roughly 0.4 miles away that had received permits in 2024; Maslin and Hall discussed the city's one-mile buffer rule that prohibits a tobacco/vape shop within one mile of another such use, which was the basis for the location violation. Maslin and Hall also noted some ambiguities in the code text after a recent rewrite (references to sections labeled "CG" versus "CN" and numbering differences), but Maslin said he was bound by the language on the citation and the administrative record.
Respondents did not testify; one attendee said the building and business were listed for sale. Maslin directed that the fine apply to resolve the current citation; no further administrative actions were announced at the hearing.
