Smoke photo by Stephen Hocking on unsplash.com

Three members of the Fresno City Council plan to introduce an ordinance that could force most of the city’s smoke shops to close.

The ordinance from Councilmembers Miguel Arias and Nelson Esparza and Vice President Annalisa Perea would require a conditional use permit to operate a retail tobacco shop.

Arias said the ordinance aims to protect public health and close a zoning loophole that have allowed the stores to proliferate.

The ordinance could limit the number of smoke shops in Fresno to around 14, or two per council district, according to a report by Soreath Hok with KVPR.

There are currently 119 retail tobacco shops operating in the city, according to the KVPR report.

“These smoke shops have proven detrimental to our Fresno community and have increased the demand for public safety responses,” Arias said in a news release. “Through this ordinance, we are promoting and safeguarding public health and creating a more positive environment for our residents by establishing these regulations and consequently eliminating nearly 70% of the current operating neighborhood smokes shops city-wide.”

According to the California Tobacco Health Assessment Tool, there are 586 tobacco retailers in Fresno County.

Charles Janigian, president of the California Association of Retail Tobacconists, told KVPR he believes the ordinance is “punitive” and that retailers are already seeing rising rents, higher insurance costs and other impacts to their business.

Arias told KVPR the ordinance could be introduced this fall and that by January, “the vast majority of smoke shops in the city will no longer be operating in the City of Fresno.”