New Hyde Park’s Village Board is considering restrictions on hookah bars and electronic cigarette shops as their prevalence grows, Mayor Robert Lofaro said.
A proposed local law would explicitly define “hookah bar” and “vape shop” as an adult use in the village code, subjecting them to distance and other restrictions.
The code already implies hookah bars and vape shops would be adult uses because minors aren’t legally allowed in them, Lofaro said, but the village wants to give “no room for interpretation.”
“We believe that it would be already prohibited in certain areas, but better to have it spelled out as opposed to inferred,” Lofaro said.
Section 195-13 of New Hyde Park’s village code says certain “adult” establishments can operate in industrial zones with a special-use permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals, but cannot be within 2,000 feet of each other or within 800 feet of a school, church, park, playground, playing field or public library.
It lists 11 specific types of adult uses subject to those restrictions, including strip clubs, tattoo parlors, piercing salons and massage parlors.
Another clause says that list is not exhaustive, and the village building superintendent can declare an application falls under the restrictions.
The village has not gotten any applications for hookah bars or vape shops, Lofaro said, but the Village Board wants to make sure the code keeps up with the times.
“When we adopted this code there was no such thing as a vape shop or a hookah bar on Long Island, so as definitions change, types of businesses change, our code has to remain current,” Lofaro said.
The Village of Mineola passed a local law in December making hookah bars a permitted use for industrial zones.
Many other Long Island municipalities, including three in Great Neck, have banned hookah bars in recent years.
The villages of Great Neck and Great Neck Estates both passed bans on the establishments in 2014.
The Village of Great Neck Plaza passed a moratorium on hookah bars that year, making an exception for Fountain Blue Hookah at 435 Middle Neck Road, which opened before the law went into effect.
Google and Yelp currently list Fountain Blue as permanently closed, and its phone number is no longer in service.
New Hyde Park’s Village Board will hold a public hearing on the hookah bar and vape shop regulations at 7:30 p.m. April 5 at Village Hall at 1420 Jericho Turnpike.
Photo courtesy of Vaping360.com.
