Mount Prospect tightens zoning rules around tobacco, vape shops

Mount Prospect is clamping down on tobacco and vape shops and lounges.

Village board members recently updated the village code after receiving complaints about local tobacco and vape shops selling tobacco products to underage customers.

Now, all new tobacco and vape shops will require conditional use approval in all business districts.

Previously, tobacco shops were approved uses in four business zoning districts and vape shops in two business zoning districts.

Community Development Director Jason Shallcross said other changes will include fingerprinting of tobacco establishment owners by the police department. Owners will have to pass background investigations similar to those required for massage establishment owners.

Additionally, there are $250 licensing fees for the first year and then $100 for each succeeding year.

“The genesis for these amendments is really in response to issues that we have had regarding sales to underage (individuals),” Shallcross said.

Trustee Colleen Saccotelli is pleased zoning is more restrictive.

“The vaping issue is certainly a huge issue with our teenage and middle school kids, and any way that we can make it safer and less accessible to our youth is great,” she said.

The changes would apply only to those establishments were tobacco and vape sales are the primary use. Businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, where tobacco sales are an accessory use, would not need conditional use approval.

Mount Prospect Development Planner Antonia Lalagos said the village has 10 tobacco shops and two tobacco lounges, adding that most of the tobacco shops also sell vape products.

Existing businesses are grandfathered in, Shallcross said. But if ownership changes hands, that would trigger the conditional use approval process.