Smithtown, NY Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Chapter 322, the Town's Building Zone Ordinance, treats hookah lounges, vape stores/lounges, and smoke shops as a defined use category under Section 322-3, covering any business whose principal operation includes on-site sale or smoking of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, tobacco, e-cigarettes, vape pens, or e-liquids. 5, added April 26, 2018 by Local Law No. 2-2018 and amended November 7, 2023 by Local Law No. 15-2023, sets the operative rule: these uses cannot locate within 1,500 feet of the lot line of a park, playground, religious institution, or school anywhere in the Town.

Because the standard runs lot line to lot line, an applicant needs a survey or site plan showing the separation before the Chief Building Inspector will approve a certificate of occupancy or sign a building permit. 5 sits in Article IV, Supplementary Use and Building Regulations, next to comparable siting buffers for adult retail shops and self-storage facilities, reflecting the Town's practice of controlling sensitive retail through distance rather than an outright citywide ban. The buffer applies only in the unincorporated Town; Smithtown's four incorporated villages, Nissequogue, Head of the Harbor, the Village of the Branch, and Poquott, each administer their own zoning code and are not covered by this section. 5 does not itself grandfather existing operators.