After 2 years, Fresno was set to regulate smoke shops. But city council couldn’t agree

When Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias came into office in 2019, there was a single smoke shop operating in his district.

A half-dozen years later, the highly-visible and heavily-advertised corner stores are fairly ubiquitous among the city’s strip malls and shopping centers. There are now more than 40 smoke shops in Arias’ District 3 and dozens more across Fresno, operating (often times illegally, according to the city) essentially unregulated under a loophole in municipal code that allows them to exist next to so-called sensitive areas like schools and parks.

Many of the shops have become hubs for illegal activities (things like gambling, prostitution and marijuana sales), but remain open and operating despite a crackdown by police and the city’s code enforcement department (with the help of California’s Attorney General) launched two years ago.

But a bill that would have regulated smoke shops in Fresno failed Thursday in a vote by the city council.

The bill, which has been in the planning stages for two years, would amend sections of the development code to define and regulate retailers. Provisions included:

• Setting limits on the numbers of smoke shops at 49; seven in each city district.
• Requiring businesses to obtain a conditional use permit, similar to those required for alcohol or cannabis sales. This would include a security plan for the establishment and include video surveillance.
• Increase fines: $2,500 for selling tobacco products to minors and $1,000 for advertising violations; current fines are capped at $250, can be appealed and take up to two years to be paid, Arias said.
• Creating a list of egregious violations (like drug activity, gambling and prostitution, but also loitering, lewd conduction and excessive littering) that would result in an immediate 30-day closure for violators.
• Limiting hours of operation from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

If passed, the bill would have shut down dozens of businesses over the next year and half.

“We’re going to see the city change dramatically,” Councilmember Nelson Esparza said during a news conference Tuesday when the proposed finalized bill was unveiled.

After an hour-plus long debate Thursday, the vote ended split: three-to-three.

Arias, Esparza and Annalisa Pera (the bill’s co-sponsors) voted to approve.

Mike Karbassi, Tyler Maxwell and Nick Richardson voted no.

(The council’s seventh seat, District 5, is currently unfilled heading into next week’s special election.)

Opposition to proposed smoke shop ordinance

At the center of Thursday’s debate was what to do with existing smoke shops.

Under the ordinance, they would be given 18 months to change business operations or sell off existing product and close. Those looking to reopen as a “smoke shop” would have to apply for one of 49 conditional use permits.

Todd Wynkoop, an attorney representing the California Smoke Shop Association, said the bill would face several constitutional challenges. During the council meeting’s public comment, he suggested the closed shops could file suit against the city to get back the value of their businesses to the tune of millions of dollars.

“Don’t let the city’s language fool you,” he says.

“You are going to immediately shut down at least 30 shops.”

One of those, Fresno Smoke Shop, has been in operation for 16 years. Its owner urged the council to deny the bill. “I don’t think it’s fair to tell anybody, ‘Hey, we don’t like you. We don’t think it’s working out. You have to pack up and go,’” he said.

“It’s unethical and un-American. Last time, it was gas station and liquor stores, then it was massage parlors. What’s next?”

The council did debate adding amendments to the bill, including one that would give grandfathered status to existing smoke shops, though council members couldn’t come to a consensus on exactly which businesses would be included.

Is the city crackdown working?

Fourteen smoke shop have closed since the city began its crackdown in 2023. That includes one that was located 400 feet from Pinedale Elementary School.

But the process is long and complicated, and ultimately it’s the property owner terminating leases and evicting tenants that forces the businesses out. That’s just not a sustainable way to regulate them, Arias said.

“It took me two years to get one smoke shop closed,” he said.

“When I have 47 (in my district), that’s not physically possible.”

It is unclear if or when the ordinance might appear again before the council, which meets again March 27, but in a joint statement released on Thursday Arias, Esparza and Parea reaffirmed their commitment “to combating a prominent industry that currently operated with no oversight, endangering public health and safety,” they wrote.

“Today’s vote ensures that smoke shops engage in illegal activities continue operation.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM.