Manteca won’t be allowing any more smoke shops within the city for the foreseeable future.

The City Council instituted an emergency ban Tuesday for “health and safety reasons” while the staff looks at ways of better regulating smoke shops.

This is not the first time city leaders have tried to put additional restrictions on smoke shops.

The opening of a smoke shop  the 100 block of West Yosemite in the spring of 2021 irked some other merchants.

That’s because they thought they fought the battle in 2016 to prevent businesses from opening in the “downtown core” such as tattoo parlors, night clubs, and smoke shops in a bid to encourage more pedestrian businesses.

It turned out the urgency ordinance passed Jan. 4, 2017 to block a nightclub with pro wrestling matches from opening in a former billiards hall in the 200 block of West Yosemite didn’t exclude smoke shops and tattoo parlors as some were led to believe.

Smoke shops fall under the allowed general retail use designation.

Tattoo parlors fall under personnel services that are allowed in the downtown core.

It was expressed at the time that allowing tattoo parlors and smoke shops that weren’t in place at the end of 2016 would work against efforts to secure uses such as downtown dining.

In March 2021 then Councilman Gary Singh was also under the impression the directive given staff back in 2016 by the council.

According to a staff report attached to Tuesday’s temporary ban on smoke shops, “the City is concerned about the proliferation of these businesses, and the harmful effects of tobacco and other products sold at these establishments on the health, safety, and welfare of the City’s residents, especially youth.”

The Manteca Police Department, along with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, regularly conduct inspections of tobacco retailers, and continually find that these businesses are often engaged in illegal activity, including the sale of:

*cannabis

*flavored tobacco products

*unstamped cigarettes

*out of state stamped cigarettes

*untaxed tobacco products

*and various activity without the required permits and licenses.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulleletin.com