A proposal for a vape shop drew some safety concerns from Floral Park residents Tuesday night despite the owner’s assurances that they had nothing to worry about.
“Our concern and what’s made Floral Park a very vital community is the fact that we do invest a lot in our children, and we invest a lot in their future,” village Mayor Thomas Tweedy said.
The village Board of Trustees tabled Amupam Yadav’s application to open a shop at 344 Jericho Turnpike to sell electronic cigarettes and accessories.
The 980-square-foot store would also have a lounge area with seating for about 10 people, said Yadav, who owns vape shops called Stratus Vapor in Carle Place and Manhattan.
The vaporizers Yadav sells turn flavored vegetable-based liquids, available with and without nicotine, into a water vapor used as an alternative to tobacco that can help people quit smoking, he said.
“This actually is healthier than smoking because it has no carcinogens, no chemicals, no tar,” said Yadav, a resident of Little Neck, Queens.
Customers generally come into Yadav’s shops to try different flavors of the vapor liquid, and many sit in the lounge to taste them in a “relaxed atmosphere,” he said.
Trustees and residents, though, said they were worried about customers gathering and lingering in the lounge space, especially if Yadav were to host live entertainment at his shop.
Some residents were concerned about a vaping “culture” creating health and safety risks for the community.
A resident, Jennifer Stewart, cited a CNN article that called vaping “the latest scourge in drug abuse.”
They were also concerned about Yadav’s shop attracting minors, given that the shop would be about half a mile from the John Lewis Childs Elementary School and within walking distance of a church.
“Certainly all the different flavors make it enticing for children to try,” said Nadia Ortiz, president of the Hillcrest Civic Association.
Yadav said he would not have live entertainment except for the shop’s grand opening, and would most likely not host parties at the store. Employees would scan every customer’s identification to make sure no one younger than 19 enters the store, he said.
Yadav’s other stores have seven or eight customers at a time, he said. They usually stay about 10 or 15 minutes, but some do stay longer, he said.
“If we say there was a culture of smoking which was killing half a million people a year, compared to this, vaping — if it’s considered a culture here, then it is a culture,” Yadav said. “At least it’s not killing anyone.”
Yadav’s proposal follows efforts in nearby villages to restrict where vaping businesses can operate or ban on-site vaping.
Floral Park’s Board of Trustees also tabled a decision Tuesday that would clear the way for a 36-unit apartment project at the former site of Koenig’s Restaurant on South Tyson Avenue.
Woodbury-based Questus Capital Management’s $7 million mixed-used project has the village Zoning Board of Appeals’ approval, but it needs a special-use permit from the Board of Trustees to keep using the property at 85 S. Tyson Ave. as a parking lot.
Eight residents said they were worried the project would only exacerbate problems in an area that’s already congested and short on parking spaces.
“Parking there is absolutely critical,” said Bill Corbett, who owns a business on South Tyson Avenue. “It’s hurting people, hurting business. We just can’t expand our businesses, and it’s tough just to maintain it the way it is.”
A traffic study showed the project would not significantly affect traffic or parking because relatively few residents would bring cars to the “transit-oriented” development, located within walking distance of Floral Park’s Long Island Rail Road station, said a traffic engineer, Wayne Muller.
Muller said planners worked with local officials and the Floral Park-Bellerose school board to address safety concerns in the area.
The development will have 78 parking spaces between the lot and a first-floor parking garage in a new four-story building, attorney William Bonnesso said. The two-story building that formerly housed Koenig’s Restaurant will have a restaurant or retail store on the ground floor and will have two additional floors of apartments, he said.
Tweedy said the Board of Trustees will make a final decision after the village Architectural Review Board examines the project.
