Piscataway, NJ Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Section 21-1019, added November 26, 2019 by Ordinance No. 2019-29, sets zoning standards for any establishment selling vaping products or e-cigarettes, stating in Section 21-1019.1 that the purpose is to preserve the health and welfare of Township residents. Section 21-1019.2 makes such a retailer a conditional use, permitted only in the C (Commercial), G-B (General Business), BPI (Business Professional), BPII (Business Professional II), BR (Business/Recreation), HC (Hotel Conference Center) and SC (Shopping Center) districts, and only if the standards of Section 21-1019.3 are met. Those standards require, first, that the district actually permit retail sales activities.

Second, the premises cannot sit within 500 meters of any of twelve listed uses: nursery and preschools; child, adult or special-needs day care centers; elementary, middle or high schools; state or county colleges and universities; other schools; funeral homes; health services facilities; other vaping or e-cigarette establishments; assisted living facilities; churches or other houses of worship, Sunday schools or religious schools; and parks, playgrounds and commercial recreational facilities. The 500-meter buffer mirrors the Township's separate conditional-use standard for firearms sales dealers in Section 21-1018.3, adopted the year before, which uses the same list of protected uses at a 1,000-foot radius instead.

Because the vape standard is a zoning conditional use rather than a stand-alone business license, an applicant must clear conditional use approval from the Planning Board or Zoning Board of Adjustment before opening, on top of any state licensing that selling tobacco or vapor products otherwise requires.