Irondequoit, NY Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)
Key Facts
- School, playground, child-care buffer
- 1,000 feet from property line
- Dealer-to-dealer spacing
- 750 feet from nearest public entrance
- Where allowed
- Only districts that allow retail stores and shops
- Home occupations
- Excluded from the permitted use
- State license
- New York Commissioner of Taxation and Finance
- Enacted
- L.L. No. 8-2021, added 8-17-2021
Summary
In the Town of Irondequoit, a tobacco retail dealer or vapor products dealer is a permitted use only in zoning districts that allow retail stores, and only if no part of its property line sits within 1,000 feet of a school, playground or child-care facility or within 750 feet of an existing licensed dealer's public entrance.
A. Notwithstanding any provision of the Code of the Town of Irondequoit to the contrary, tobacco retail dealers or vapor products dealers shall be a permitted use in, and only in, any zoning district of Chapter 235 of the Code of the Town of Irondequoit that allows retail establishments or retail stores and shops, not including home occupations, provided that: (1) Any part of the property line of the tobacco retail dealer or vapor products dealer business is not located within 1,000 feet from the nearest point of the property line of a school, playground or child-care facility; and (2) Any part of the property line of the tobacco retail dealer or vapor products dealer business is not located within 750 feet from the nearest public entrance of one or more existing licensed tobacco retail dealer or vapor products dealer. B. Where the use in a zoning district for retail establishments or retail stores and shops would require the approval of a site plan by the Planning Board, the consent by the Board of Appeals, a special use permit, or any other approval, such requirement or requirements shall also apply to tobacco retail dealers or vapor products dealers.
Full Breakdown
Article XXVII of Chapter 235, added by L.L. No. 8-2021, is the Town of Irondequoit's tobacco and vapor siting law. The Town Board did not create a Town-issued license. Instead, § 235-178 defines both kinds of dealer by reference to a state credential: a tobacco retail dealer is a person licensed by the New York Commissioner of Taxation and Finance to sell cigarettes or tobacco products, and a vapor products dealer is a person licensed by that same Commissioner to sell vapor products. The Town's own control is zoning.
Section 235-179A makes these dealers a permitted use in, and only in, any zoning district of Chapter 235 that allows retail establishments or retail stores and shops, not including home occupations. Two distance tests then apply. The first is 1,000 feet from the nearest point of the property line of a school, playground or child-care facility. The second is 750 feet from the nearest public entrance of one or more existing licensed tobacco retail dealers or vapor products dealers. In both tests the code measures from any part of the dealer's property line.
Section 235-179B adds that whatever approval the retail use needs in that district also applies to the dealer. If retail would require Planning Board site plan approval, consent by the Board of Appeals, a special use permit or any other approval, the tobacco or vapor dealer needs it too.
The Town Board's stated purpose in § 235-177 is to limit sales to retail districts and to reduce the concentration of dealers, citing New York State Public Health Law § 1399-ii and findings on youth nicotine use and outlet density.
Section 235-180 makes the law prospective only. It does not reach a dealer already licensed by the Commissioner before the article was enacted, or one that had already applied for a building permit, site plan review, a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals, or a zoning map amendment from the Town Board.
Violations & Fines
Article XXVII prints no fine of its own. A dealer whose property line fails either distance test is outside the permitted use, so the Town of Irondequoit's Department of Community Development and the Planning Board have no basis to issue the building permit or approvals the retail use requires, and the zoning enforcement provisions of Chapter 235 apply to a use operating without them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Town of Irondequoit issue a tobacco or vape retail license?
How far must a vape shop be from a school in Irondequoit?
How close can two vape or tobacco dealers be?
Do existing Irondequoit dealers have to move?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Irondequoit
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