Laura Glesby photos
Local licenses, inspections are on the horizon for tobacco retailers.
Health Director Maritza Bond: Inspections would protect kids from exposure to addictive carcinogens.
The city’s Health Department could soon have the power to crack down on smoke shops that violate the law — by way of a proposed municipal license system that would allow for stricter local regulation of the 212 businesses already OK’d by the state to sell tobacco in New Haven.
At a Tuesday night meeting in City Hall, the Board of Alders Legislation Committee advanced an ordinance amendment that would establish the local tobacco license.
The proposal would regulate all existing and future local tobacco retailers, businesses ranging from convenience stores to cigar bars that have proliferated in New Haven in recent years. Under the prospective legislation, those establishments would have to obtain a local license on top of the existing state license currently required to sell tobacco in Connecticut.
A municipal license would enable New Haven to bring more resources to the existing state regulatory system, according to Health Director Maritza Bond. Bond said that the state tobacco licensing program typically works with business owners upon the establishment of a tobacco establishment and then conducts sporadic spot checks.
Under the proposed municipal license system, local health inspectors would conduct regular inspections of all licensed establishments every year, evaluating whether they are complying with local, state, and federal tobacco and smoking laws.
The department would also have the ability to process and respond to public complaints about particular tobacco establishments.
“The main purpose is public health and safety,” said Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin, who had served on the city-alder working group that drafted the legislation.
“These establishments can be hotspots for the quality-of-life issues in our neighborhoods,” he added.
“We hope to reduce [tobacco] exposure to children,” said Bond.
The proposed ordinance amendment is intended to work in concert with a proposed zoning amendment also under review by alders.
That zoning change would regulate the ability of tobacco retailers to open up close to existing tobacco shops, schools, parks, and churches — although existing shops would be able to remain where they are as “legally non-conforming” businesses. It would also regulate window displays, preventing stores from displaying tobacco products and accessories in a way that’s visible from the street.
If those zoning rules are approved, health inspectors could enforce them as well during their inspections. And if the city revokes a business’s tobacco license, that business may lose its “legally non-conforming” status — and may need to fight for a special exception before the Board of Zoning Appeals, on top of a new license, before opening back up again.
If an inspection uncovers a violation of tobacco laws on the federal, state, or local level — for instance, if a store is selling cigarettes to customers under the minimum legal age of 21 — the retailer would face fines and a potential license suspension.
The first violation would entail a fine of $150; the second violation within 36 months of the first would entail a $500 fine and a weeklong license suspension; and the third violation within 36 months a $1,000 fine as well as a revocation of the license.
These fines and consequences would have to be approved by a volunteer hearing officer, and establishments would have the opportunity to appeal the findings.
According to the ordinance, each day that a problem persists constitutes its own violation. Additionally, if an establishment continues to keep tobacco and smoking products on their premises after its license has been revoked or suspended, it would be subject to an extra $1,000 fine per day.
If approved by the full Board of Alders, the local licensing program would take effect on Sept. 1, 2025 and would impose a deadline for existing tobacco businesses to obtain a license by Oct. 1, 2025.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison argued that business owners should have more time to obtain a license before the law goes into effect.
“A lot of these establishments are [owned by] people who live down the street from us. They want to eat, too,” Morrison said.
Bond replied that if the legislation passes, the Health Department plans to inform the 212 tobacco businesses currently licensed by the state in New Haven by way of emails, letters, and public webinars about the new regulations.
Still, Morrison said, “as great as the Health Department is about educating, I know some businesses will fall through the cracks.” She proposed an amendment to push back the compliance deadline for existing businesses to Jan. 1, 2026, though she ultimately retracted the amendment when it did not receive support.
Majority Leader Richard Furlow, who convened the working group that drafted the legislation, argued that the October deadline would provide businesses with about six months to comply with the ordinance. That timeline also accounts for “our residents that are pleading with us to take action on this,” Furlow said.
Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin, meanwhile, sought to add language to the ordinance directly empowering the Health Department to penalize establishments found to be violating any law — an effort to address a pattern of smoke shops doubling as hotspots for unregulated cannabis sales, other illicit drug dealing, and violence. He had in mind the way Fair Haveners used the liquor license process to shut down the Grand Cafe, which had been a persistent site of crime, in 2022.
Westville Alder Adam Marchand cautioned that adding language allowing the Health Department to respond to violations of any federal, state, or local law could have unintended consequences. “You could be behind on your taxes. You could be employing undocumented immigrants,” he said. “Especially with this federal administration… I don’t think we should go this broad.”
Sabin retracted his proposed amendment, indicating that he would continue to mull over how problems with the drug trade and violence could be addressed through the licensing system.
The legislation is now in the hands of the full Board of Alders, after the committee voted on Tuesday to unanimously recommend it.
Urgency is needed for "our residents that are pleading with us to take action on this,” said Majority Leader Richard Furlow.
There was no public testimony offered at the hearing. But the issue did come up at a Beaver Hills community meeting in late January organized by Alder Gary Hogan, where neighbors spoke to Mayor Justin Elicker, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, and other city and state officials.
One attendee pointed to a stretch of Whalley Avenue by Hobart, Brownell, and Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.
“I call that ‘Vegas’: drugs, violence, alcohol,” said Jazmine Taylor, who added that public urination and illicit fireworks are also a problem in that area.
Jacobson responded that the New Haven Police Department is putting together a task force in concert with the state police to address hubs of illegal activity at smoke shops or convenience stores, working on inspections and citations.
Furlow told the attendees about the smoke shop legislation — the proposed licensing system as well as the zoning amendment — currently before alders.
Cameron Albert raised his hand to ask about the “three strike system” built into the licensing proposal.
“What about a one strike system?” he asked, noting that some smoke shops or convenience stores shut down by the state have been able to quickly open back up.
The licensing legislation would help bring more teeth to existing enforcement efforts, Furlow argued. “If a smoke shop is fined and they lose their license, they can’t just change their name,” he added.