Waukesha County, WI Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

13(1) of the B-4 Community Business District, alongside grocery stores, drugstores, and other new-merchandise retailers. 11 as intended for shopping-center-style retail that must sit within one mile of a major highway interchange or at or near the intersection of two major highways, so a tobacco or vape retailer in an unincorporated town cannot simply locate on any commercially-zoned parcel; it must be sited within a B-4 parcel meeting that highway-proximity test. 12 further requires the Plan Commission and Zoning Administrator to review and approve building plans plus a Site Plan and Plan of Operation for the proposed store before it opens, evaluating how the use, its operating characteristics, and traffic relate to the arterial highway system and adjacent uses.

If a prospective tobacco or e-cigarette retailer wants to locate in a district where tobacco stores are not a listed permitted use, such as B-1, B-2, or B-3, the applicant must seek a rezoning to B-4 or, where the district allows it, a conditional use permit; simply obtaining the underlying State of Wisconsin retail cigarette and tobacco products license does not substitute for county zoning compliance. This is separate from the actual retail-sale license itself, which is issued by the town where the store sits, not the county; the county's role here is exclusively zoning placement and site plan approval under the Basic Zoning Ordinance, last amended countywide by Enrolled Ordinance 171-38 effective 9/28/16 and reprinted in the version effective 12/11/2024.