National City, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Chapter 9.38 of the National City Municipal Code was repealed and re-enacted by Ordinance 2025-2550 on November 4, 2025. Section 9.38.030(A) makes it unlawful to engage in tobacco retailing in the City without first obtaining and maintaining a valid tobacco retailer's license for each location. Tobacco product is defined in Section 9.38.020 to include any electronic smoking device, meaning e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, vape pens and e-hookahs, and any substance that can be aerosolized or vaporized by such a device, whether or not it contains nicotine.

Section 9.38.040 limits eligibility. No license goes to a moveable place of business, to a location licensed by the State of California for commercial cannabis activity, or, one year after the chapter's effective date, to a pharmacy. No newly established business can be within one thousand feet of a youth-oriented facility (schools, public libraries, playgrounds, youth centers, public recreation facilities, parks and licensed child-care facilities), within one thousand feet of a tobacco retailer already licensed under the chapter, or within one thousand feet of an existing cannabis retailer. Distances run in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures. Total licenses are limited to fifty-four, and none can issue once the number issued equals or exceeds that total. Retailers operating lawfully on the adoption date can keep an exemption from the proximity and cap rules if the license is renewed without lapse and the store does not suspend tobacco retailing for more than sixty consecutive days.

Operating rules follow: no sales to anyone under twenty-one, photo identification checked on every sale, no self-service displays, and in-person sales only, with delivery sales prohibited (Section 9.38.030). The license term is one year, renewal is due no later than thirty days before expiration, licenses transfer between proprietors but not between sites, and the Community Development Department administers the program and inspects each retailer at least one time per twelve-month period (Sections 9.38.100, 9.38.110, 9.38.140). Fees are set by City Council resolution (Section 9.38.130).