West Haven, CT Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Section 139-14 of the West Haven Code was added by the City Council on 9-23-2024. It applies to each person engaging in, or intending to engage in, the business of selling cigarettes pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 14 in the City of West Haven as a dealer, and to each person selling taxed tobacco products at retail. Each must secure a dealer's license from the Commissioner of Revenue Services before engaging in the business or continuing in it. The city does not issue this license itself.

The city's role is notice and comment. On filing the application, the applicant must give notice of it to the Clerk of the City of West Haven, in the form and manner the Commissioner prescribes. The notice must contain the name and residential address of the applicant and the location of the place of business for which the license is to be issued. On receipt, the Clerk posts and maintains the notice on the city's website for at least two weeks and notifies the Chief of Police of the license renewal. The Chief of Police can offer comment on the application.

Subsection B adds a posting duty for the applicant. Not later than the day after giving notice, the applicant must affix a copy of the notice, kept legible, on the outer door of the building where the business will be located. If the application is for a building not yet constructed, the applicant must erect and maintain on the site a sign that is not less than six feet by four feet, contains the license applied for and the name of the proposed licensee, and is clearly visible from the public highway.

The chapter's general licensing fee table in § 139-1 does not list a tobacco fee, and the section quoted here sets no city fee or zoning distance for tobacco sellers.