Henrico adopts vaping shop regulations, plans to expand them

The Henrico Board of Supervisors has adopted new restrictions regulating where vaping shops can be located.

The shops now will be prohibited within 1,000 feet of a school or 2,000 feet (or a little less than half a mile) of a park or another vaping shop, according to the regulations approved by the board July 9. Further, they would be limited to certain zoning areas, and a business also would need to apply for a provisional use permit before being allowed to open one anywhere in the county.

The county will define a vaping shop as any business that dedicates 15% or more of its display space to e-cigarettes and related items. These restrictions will not require existing vaping shops within these distance limits to move unless they have closed for two years or more.

There are currently 40 vaping shops in Henrico, Assistant Henrico Planning Director Ben Blankinship told supervisors, and their growth has been relatively quick during the past few years, leading to concerns that minors were using these stores.

“That is something we found in doing a review of nationwide research on this issue,” he said. “Other places had found that vape shops specifically – businesses that were aimed at vaping, that’s their principal activity – they were less likely to check the IDs of minors than, say, a convenience store or a grocery store that may also sell vaping materials.”

Henrico County Attorney Andrew Newby explained that localities are limited to the authority granted by the commonwealth in regulating these shops, which only allows restrictions up to 1,000 feet from a school and doesn’t allow a restriction on the total number of shops in a locality. However, Henrico has more latitude in keeping vaping shops away from other locations, as long as the restriction has a rational basis, he said.

Discussion among supervisors focused on the options for further strengthening these regulations and how soon the board could take action again.

A representative comment came from Tuckahoe District Supervisor Jody Rogish.

“I have them across the street from Freeman High School,” he said, “I know they’re across the street from my colleague’s middle school in Fairfield, I’ve driven by, so I certainly support this ordinance, and if my colleagues want to make it stronger, I support that as well.”

Fairfield Supervisor Roscoe Cooper, III offered similar feedback.

“I know the Fairfield District has seen a proliferation of vape shops and we know crime is heavy, we know the materials that are being sold,” he said. “So I concur with Mr. Rogish. If we can approve this with the contingency to revisit the spacing between the shops, we may not be able to limit the number but we sure can limit the distance, which would make it more prohibitive to proliferate in certain areas.”

In discussion with Henrico Planning Director Joe Emerson and Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas, the board finally settled on approving the regulation and then hearing more information about possible amendments during future work sessions. Those could be tied to the first comprehensive overhaul of the zoning code in decades.

To line up these future discussions, Brookland District Supervisor Dan Schmitt requested that the planning department consider establishing a distance requirement for daycare centers, churches, and residential areas and ensuring the regulations cover mobile locations operating “like a food truck.”

He also asked that planners consider adding regulations covering stores selling similar items, like CDB and hemp products, and suggested that the county ask the General Assembly to grant authority for localities to further regulate the number and distance requirements for vaping shops and other businesses of concern.

* * *

In other matters, the board deferred until Sept. 10 a proposal to expand the River Mill subdivision in Glen Allen with as many as 60 townhomes at the intersection of Woodman Road and Winfrey Road. The proposal, which was endorsed by the planning commission, would exceed the housing density standards for that area.

The developer, Fairfield Winfrey Road LLC, indicated that it would provide one of these lots to an affordable housing nonprofit. Emerson noted that the developer had not held a community meeting and that both the planning department and Fairfield Supervisor Cooper had received calls from neighbors with concerns.

* * *

A similar proposal to expand the Bacova subdivision, at the intersection of Pouncey Tract Road (Route 271) and Liesfeld Farm Drive in Short Pump by 32 townhouses was deferred at the request of the developer until the board’s Aug. 13 meeting. Three Chopt Supervisor Misty Whitehead praised the developer for being responsive to concerns from neighbors and said, “I’m hoping to get to ‘yes.’”