Macon-Bibb County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

04, added to the Comprehensive Land Development Resolution by Resolution of January 12, 2026, singles out vape shops for their own zoning and spacing controls. The stated purpose is to keep vape shops from clustering near places where youth congregate, limiting the negative effects of vaping, especially on minors. Zoning is restricted to five districts: C-2 General Commercial, C-4 Highway Commercial, M-1 Wholesale and Light Industrial, M-2 Heavy Industrial, and SC Special Commercial. A vape shop is not a permitted use anywhere else in the county, including C-1 Neighborhood Commercial, the CBD-1 and CBD-2 Central Business Districts, or any residential or agricultural district.

Within those five allowed districts, two locational requirements apply on top of the district limit: a new vape shop must be at least 2,640 feet, exactly half a mile, from any other vape shop, and it must be at least 2,640 feet from any educational facility or any facility for the care of children, which sweeps in schools, day care centers and day care homes alike. Because the spacing rule is measured shop-to-shop as well as shop-to-school, a location that clears the school buffer can still fail if an existing vape retailer already occupies the half-mile radius, so an applicant needs a site survey confirming both distances before applying for a zoning permit.

The ordinance does not set separate retail licensing terms like fees or hours; it operates purely as a use and location restriction layered on top of whatever state tobacco and vapor product retailer registration Georgia law otherwise requires.