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City council scheduled to vote on tobacco shop moratorium in Toledo

The moratorium would be until the end of January 2025, allowing for a study to be done regarding the impact of the shops on residents and neighborhoods.

TOLEDO, Ohio —

A temporary ban on new tobacco shops may be coming to the city of Toledo.

City council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a moratorium that would go into effect for almost four months.

"It's not a complete ban or anything like that," city council member Adam Martinez said. "It's just a pause."

Martinez said the city and the Plan Commission have been inundated with applications for smoke, tobacco and vape shops. 

"Over the past six to eight months, since I've been on council, they've come up almost regularly in our zoning and planning meeting," Martinez said. "We get anywhere from one to three applications monthly and most times they're voted down."

Martinez said in the time he has been on council, he remembers one permit being passed for a specialty cigar shop.

He said although each council member has their own reasons, a lot of times council votes no due to community group opposition, along with health and safety concerns.

"A lot of times these shops become predatory and go into divested areas where there's already health concerns and then access to children that they can gain these types of products," Martinez said.

He said the Plan Commission wanted to take a pause and review the special use permit needed for smoke shops because of how often council votes down applications.

The moratorium will last until Jan. 31, 2025. In that time, if the moratorium is passed, a study would be done to see if there should be a change to the permits.

Martinez said the study would see if there is a concern with the proliferation of these types of establishments. He said the study would also see if it would make sense to have spacing or a limit based on population, similar to other special use permits throughout the city.

"This is just more of a pause, and let's see what's best for the community," Martinez said.

If there was a substantial change, Martinez said there would be a public hearing to see if the business community, or anyone impacted has the opportunity to be part of the conversation.

"This is definitely not done in a vacuum," Martinez said. 

Martinez said as of right now, he has not heard any negative feedback regarding the proposed moratorium, but he is aware that this could impact businesses looking to come to the area.

"We want to be pro-business, but in the same respect we also have to look out for the good and welfare of our community," Martinez said.

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