Orange County commissioners waded into a brewing neighborhood fight yesterday, opening a debate over whether smoke and vape shops should be pushed farther away from public schools after parents sounded the alarm about a store near a Windermere-area high school.
District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson urged the board to look at countywide zoning changes that would keep new retailers roughly 500 to 1,000 feet from school property. By the end of the discussion, commissioners had directed county staff and attorneys to dig into the legal and policy details and report back with concrete options.
Wilson asked staff to look at tweaking the county’s land-use table so tobacco and vape retailers are no longer treated like any other commercial business, which currently lets them operate "by right," according to ClickOrlando. Commissioners kicked around buffer distances between 500 and 1,000 feet and generally signaled support for at least starting the research. Backers of the idea argued that a school-proximity rule in the zoning code could stop clusters of smoke shops from popping up near multiple campuses in the same area.
The push did not come out of nowhere. Parents and students ramped up pressure after Skywalker Smoke & Vape opened just a few hundred feet from Olympia High School in Windermere. The shop’s owner told local TV the business checks IDs and refuses to sell to anyone under 21, according to Spectrum News 13. Spectrum also found several other vape retailers within a short drive of the campus, which residents say heightens the temptation for impulse buys and increases youth exposure.
Wilson’s office said an internal review found that roughly 27 percent of Orange County public schools have a vape shop within a half mile. Several high school students showed up to testify in favor of a buffer, and Wilson argued that retailers "are systematically located near schools because exposure is a marketing tool," according to Orlando Weekly. Commissioners voiced broad support for studying the idea but warned that turning it into law could get tricky under state rules.
Legal Hurdle: SB 180 And Local Power
The most immediate obstacle sits in Tallahassee. A 2025 state law known as SB 180 limits how much local governments can change land-use regulations, and Orange County is among the jurisdictions that have joined legal challenges to the measure. With both ongoing litigation and proposed "fix" bills in play, county attorneys will have to figure out whether a school buffer ordinance can be written without running into state preemption.
How Other Florida Counties Handled It
Orange County is not starting from scratch. Alachua County approved a tobacco-shop buffer ordinance in 2019, and Hillsborough County put a six-month moratorium in place in 2024 on new vape shops within 500 feet of public and private schools, giving Orange County real-world examples to study, according to county code records and local reporting. Hillsborough commissioners said aggressive storefront marketing, including cartoonish displays and candy-style packaging, helped drive their decision to hit pause.
What Comes Next At The County Level
For now, the plan is more homework than hard rules. County staffers will research model ordinance language, analyze potential legal exposure, and return to the board later with options. Commissioners cautioned that crafting something that can survive a legal challenge will take time and will have to compete with budget season and other county priorities.
State Enforcement And Vape Money
At the state level, Attorney General James Uthmeier has pursued enforcement actions against illegal or youth-targeted vaping products and steered settlement cash toward prevention. A $79 million settlement with JUUL produced a $30 million Vape-Free Florida Fund to back enforcement and education efforts, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office. Local officials have pointed to that pot of money and the broader enforcement push as a potential point of alignment between county rules and statewide priorities.
For now, commissioners are united mostly on the principle of guarding the space around schools. Whether Orange County can actually write and defend a school-proximity rule will hinge on what staff brings back, how county lawyers read state law and how far local leaders are willing to push the issue with lawmakers in Tallahassee.
