Dearborn Heights, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

City Code Chapter 8, Article V, Division 2 requires any smoking lounge, defined broadly at Section 8-62 to include tobacco retail specialty stores, cigar bars and lounges, hookah cafes, tobacco clubs, and zero-percent-nicotine establishments holding a state smoking-ban exemption certificate, to obtain an annual business license from the city clerk before opening under Section 8-63. Section 8-65 requires the applicant to submit identification, the business address and zoning classification, a copy of the state exemption certificate or specialty retail license, disclosure of any disqualifying criminal act within the past seven years, the name of a local agent for service of process, and the nonrefundable application fee set by council resolution under Section 8-67.

Section 8-64 imposes a location limit: a smoking lounge cannot open if it would be the second such use within a 3,500-foot radius of an existing one, though pre-existing businesses operating under a valid certificate of occupancy on the article's effective date received a temporary 180-day license under Section 8-66 and were exempted from that spacing rule. Section 8-71 caps the number of active or reserved smoking lounge licenses citywide at seven; anyone wanting to exceed the cap must petition the city council directly, and an applicant who has filed a special land use application can reserve one of the seven slots for up to six months.

Section 8-68 conditions the license on the city's right to conduct routine inspections during business hours, and Section 8-76 requires every licensed lounge to close between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.