Harris Jones said he lives within about 150 feet from seven vape shops in Downtown Pittsburgh.
During a Tuesday public hearing about proposed restrictions on new vape shops, Jones told City Council members that he believes the businesses lead to an increase in problems from drinking to loitering to drug abuse.
Jones said nearly every morning he watches scores of kids get off the buses and throng to the shops before school.
“There is nothing in these stores that any school-age children should be consuming,” he said.
Council is contemplating legislation — which earned support from the Planning Commission last month — that would limit where new vape shops could open.
Under the bill, no new shops would be permitted within 1,000 feet of a school. Proposals to open new vape shops would need to go before the Planning Commission for approval.
The bill also would restrict hours for new vape shops and bar self-service models.
“Ultimately, the bill is about protecting our youth and strengthening our neighbors,” said Councilman Bobby Wilson, D-North Side, the primary sponsor.
The legislation does not impact medical marijuana dispensaries.
The measure has been scaled back from its original version, which proposed banning new vape shops near daycare facilities, religious institutions, public parks, playgrounds and other vape shops.
City planning staff said forbidding vape shops in close proximity to all of those uses would effectively ban any new vape shops in the city.
Zoning Administrator Carolyn Ristau on Tuesday told council the provision restricting new vape shops near existing ones would be unenforceable as the city does not currently keep tabs on how many smoke shops already exist and where.
Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, on Tuesday said she’d like to explore other possibilities for restricting high concentrations of vape shops near one another.
Fred Thieman, a Downtown resident and a former U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh, similarly said he wished council would stop new vape shops from opening near existing clusters.
“The proliferation and concentration of vape shops is a problem in and of itself,” he said.
Councilwoman Kim Salinetro, D-West End, raised the prospect of also banning new vape shops near rehabilitation facilities, something the bill does not currently propose.
Officials have also discussed the possibility of barring the shops near libraries.
Maria Cohen, who heads the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, said she’s seen a proliferation of vape shops throughout the city, including in her own neighborhood.
“The concerns addressed by this legislation are not just theoretical,” Coen said.
She described how kids gather near smoke shops when they’re waiting at bus stops and how more vape shops have opened in recent years along the Murray Avenue commercial corridor, which is popular with families and children.
“Every school day, large numbers of teenagers gather in this area before and after school,” she said.
Cohen pointed out that the new regulations would not prohibit all new smoke shops or impact those already in existence.
“They establish reasonable guardrails that balance business interests with the city’s responsibility to protect public health and neighborhood quality of life,” Cohen said.
Gina Means, who owns a Downtown business, said she worries vape shops peddle illegal and unsafe substances and cater to kids. She urged officials to clamp down on what she classified as “nuisance shops.”
“Where is the oversight by those in charge?” Means said.
