What's at stake:
Fresno has at least 144 smoke shops, many of which are operating without a business license. The policy that the Fresno City Council approved Thursday seeks to reduce that number to only 49 citywide.
City leaders moved forward Thursday with cracking down on Fresno smoke shops after a somewhat tense debate.
The Fresno City Council’s narrow 4-1 vote — with one councilmember abstaining and another absent — greenlit a proposal to force dozens of smoke shops to close down or change the nature of their business by 2026.
“I appreciate that we’re trying to be business friendly, but some of the establishments are no better than your street corner drug dealer,” Arias said of Fresno smoke shops during the Thursday council debate. “Just because they bother to pay somebody a lease and be in a brick and mortar, doesn’t give them immunity to following the rules that everybody else follows.”
Key in getting the proposal to the finish line was Councilmember Brandon Vang. In his own remarks, he acknowledged the weight behind his vote, especially after a very tense debate and 3-3 deadlock vote on the proposal back in March when his seat was still absent.
“I understand that, at the end of the day, I was sent here by the people of district 5 to represent them,” Vang said during the Thursday debate. “I’ve heard from my constituents loud and clear with regards to this particular item.”
On Thursday, the Fresno City Council was again shorthanded with the absence of Councilmember Nick Richardson, who is a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve and is currently deployed in Tunisia until early May.
Councilmember Tyler Maxwell attempted to get the policy’s co-sponsors to delay the implementation of their policy so he could bring forward an alternative.
Arias, along with councilmembers Annalisa Perea and Nelson Esparza, didn’t oblige.
Maxwell also mentioned a number of issues he had with the policy, including how it didn’t create any mechanism to go after smoke shops that do not have a business license — a common problem that Fresno’s code enforcement team is well aware of.
Prior to the vote, Vang didn’t make any statements regarding his support for the policy. While Maxwell was making his comments on the dais, he tried to appeal to Vang with an alternative idea.
“I’m curious, Councilmember Vang, if you have ever heard of a tobacco retail license process before,” Maxwell said. “Are you familiar with a tobacco retail license specifically? It’s something I’ve recently learned about myself.”
But Vang didn’t play ball.
“I want to thank the councilmember for the question,” Vang said. “I reserve my comment for when it’s my time, thank you.”
At the beginning of council meetings, City Clerk Todd Stermer typically reads into the record any changes to the agenda. On Thursday morning, he said City Council President Mike Karbassi removed the smoke shop regulation proposal from the agenda.
After hearing that, Perea motioned to bring it back. Karbassi relented and joined the rest of the council in supporting her motion.
Karbassi, as the lone no vote, repeated his concerns and repeated Clovis’ model of a tobacco retail license system. He also said he may try to repeal the smoke shop regulation policy if it got approved.
“I plan on bringing forward an item that will keep any of the good points but mostly repeal and replace this item,” Karbassi said, “and have a new policy that mirrors the Clovis model, but specifically for smoke shops.”
How the proposal would cull Fresno’s smoke shops
Right before the Thursday council meeting, Arias and City Attorney Andrew Janz both told Fresnoland they do not have an approximate number of smoke shops that would have to close down or change the nature of their business by 2026.
The City Attorney’s Office is aware of at least 144 smoke shops in Fresno — and only 82 of them have a business license. While the proposal only allows for seven smoke shops per council district — for a total of 49 citywide — Arias said doing simple subtraction to see how many would be impacted isn’t exactly accurate.
Arias said the policy has a number of stipulations on where smoke shops can be located in Fresno that may even reduce their number to below 49 citywide.
“It’s just there’s so many variables, it’s hard to determine,” Arias told Fresnoland.
Any smoke shop currently open will have to apply for a conditional use permit (CUP), which costs $15,000. The city will also use a lottery system to determine which smoke shops will get the special business permit, which will likely cull a bevy of smoke shops in south Fresno and dramatically reduce their concentration there.
The smoke shops that don’t end up with a conditional use permit will have to either change the nature of their business or shut down by the end of 2026 — giving them a 20-month timeline to make major business decisions.
The policy also defines in Fresno’s city code what a smoke shop is — which has never been done before. Arias in the past has argued that it’s impossible to regulate a type of business if it isn’t defined in city code.
During the council’s debate, Esparza chimed in to say there’s no reason Fresno couldn’t also have a tobacco retail license process.
“If Fresno were to implement a tobacco retail license or a tobacco retail tax, I don’t think that’s mutually exclusive with the CUP process that we’re proposing here today,” Esparza said. “There’s room for both if that’s the will of the council.”
Esparza added that the city needs an accountability mechanism for smoke shops. He said requiring them to get a special permit, and revoking that permit if smoke shops violate city law is exactly what Fresno needs.
“The crux of this policy is it allows us to flip the off switch,” Esparza said.
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