New Hyde Park wants to control vape stores and hookah bars
Vape shop Smoke Stax in New Hyde Park on Sunday, March 27, 2016. A public hearing on regulations will be held April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall. Credit: Anthony Lanzilote
New Hyde Park is seeking to regulate vape stores and hookah bars by categorizing them as “adult-use establishments.”
Mayor Robert Lofaro said the village board was planning on updating its code to “keep current” with the times.
The village will soon be holding a public hearing to discuss the proposed change, in which vape and hookah stores would join the same category as adult versions of bookstores, entertainment cabarets, novelty stores, motels, body piercing salons, massage parlors and more.
Adult uses, “due to their very nature, have serious objectionable characteristics,” and if adult-use businesses are too heavily concentrated in one area, it could potentially “contribute to the blighting or downgrading of the surrounding neighborhoods,” according to village code.
Village regulation would attempt to prevent concentration of adult-use businesses in any one area and restrict their accessibility to minors. Under the proposed amendment, vape stores and hookah bars would not be permitted to open anywhere within an 800-foot radius of a school, church, playground or public library.
There appears to be one vape shop and about four hookah bars in the area, though Lofaro says all are likely within the unincorporated section of New Hyde Park.
Lofaro said there was “nothing unusual” when asked if the proliferation of such adult-use businesses prompted the proposed change.
The village is one of several municipalities in Nassau County, such as Massapequa Park and Glen Cove, that have taken measures to curtail hookah bars and vape stores. Local officials have cited concerns to health, youth safety and quality of life.
In Suffolk County, the village of Lindenhurst put a moratorium on any new vape or e-cigarette shops, hookah bars or medical marijuana derivative dispensaries from opening. The villages of Patchogue and Port Jefferson have also put restrictions into place.
The New Hyde Park public hearing will be held April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall, 1420 Jericho Tpke., in New Hyde Park.
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