Lakewood, CO Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Lakewood Municipal Code Chapter 5.06, adopted to curb youth access to non-cigarette tobacco products under C.R.S. § 18-13-121, makes it unlawful for any person to "act as a non-cigarette tobacco product retailer" without a valid license for each location (§ 5.06.030(A)(1)). "Non-cigarette tobacco product" is defined broadly to include hookah, shishah and electronic cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos or vape pens, but excludes FDA-approved cessation products (§ 5.06.020). Retailing from vehicles is prohibited, and no license may issue within 500 feet of a school (measured property line to property line), though a retailer already licensed on the chapter's 2019 effective date is grandfathered from that buffer (§ 5.06.030(A)(2)-(3)).

Only one active license is allowed per licensed premises, and no license issues to anyone under 18 (§ 5.06.030(A)(4), (C)(2)). Licensees must check ID before every sale, may not let anyone under 18 sell, stock or handle the products, and must not maintain self-service displays except in age-restricted tobacco businesses or tobacco bars under Chapter 9.38 (§ 5.06.040). Applications go to the City Clerk with fees set by Council resolution; the Clerk must issue or deny within 30 days, and denial can be for an incomplete or false application, a prohibited or improperly zoned location, or an unqualified applicant (§§ 5.06.050, 5.06.060).

A denied applicant may appeal to a City Manager-designated hearing officer within 20 days (§ 5.06.070). Licenses run one year, must be displayed prominently, and lapse if not renewed at least 30 days before expiration; selling after expiration is prohibited (§§ 5.06.030(B), 5.06.080). The Lakewood Police Department and City Clerk jointly monitor compliance, including annual inspections and compliance checks using underage decoys, whose participation does not expose the decoy to a minimum-age citation (§ 5.06.110).