Pottstown, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Borough Code § 337 lists Highway Business (Contemporary) District uses, and Subsection 6 puts "Tobacco store/smoke shop" in the Special Exception category alongside rooming houses, meaning it is not allowed by right anywhere in Pottstown and cannot be approved administratively; an applicant must apply to the Zoning Hearing Board and satisfy the Board that the standards of the chapter, including any conditions the Board attaches, are met. No other zoning district in the Borough lists tobacco store/smoke shop as a permitted, conditional, or special exception use, so opening one in a Neighborhood Business, Downtown, Gateway, Flex Office or residential district is not authorized regardless of storefront design.

The Borough's own § 1400 definitions section defines TOBACCO STORE/SMOKE SHOP broadly: any retail or wholesale establishment primarily selling tobacco or vaping products, or one that simply holds itself out as a "tobacco store," "smoke shop" or "vape shop," is captured, and the definition specifically lists vaporizers, vape pens, hookah pens, electronic cigarettes and other ENDS devices as covered merchandise, while carving CBD products out of the merchandise count. A related, separately grounded rule at § 401, Subsection 30 keeps new neighborhood convenience stores at least 1,200 feet from any existing hookah bar or tobacco store/smoke shop, so an operating tobacco retailer also blocks nearby convenience-store applications for that radius.

Zoning permits and Special Exception applications are processed through the Borough's Zoning Officer and the Zoning Hearing Board, per the Zoning Officer's enforcement authority defined in the same chapter.