San Bruno City Council members have expressed interest in prohibiting new smoke shops from opening downtown, while also floating the idea of giving existing smoke shops a grace period before they would have to close. The discussion is part of a broader push to reshape zoning rules along San Mateo Avenue, the city's main downtown corridor.
According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, council members reached consensus on tightening downtown aesthetic regulations, including rules covering bright lights and signage. Business owners would get their own grace period to make lighting and sign changes under that approach. City staff told the council that timelines for any smoke shop closure process have not been finalized.
The idea of amortization — giving existing businesses years to wind down before new restrictions fully apply — was described by staff as one option that could be timed with existing smoke shop leases. The city has not settled on how long that window would be, and the broader zoning package also touches potential changes affecting grocery stores and liquor stores, along with where on a building floor certain businesses could be located.
Staff Call Phase-Out Rules Legally Tricky
San Bruno planning staff first laid out a package of zoning and administrative options on May 19, aimed at boosting downtown activity and storefront appearance while trying not to squeeze small businesses too hard, according to citizenportal.ai. That presentation included a re-evaluation of which retail and service uses should be allowed outright, allowed with conditions, or barred entirely in the central business district.
Staff flagged amortization — the legal process of phasing out nonconforming uses over time — as legally complex and potentially controversial, the same report notes. Any amortization period has to be reasonable, staff said, and the length can vary depending on what's being phased out: single-digit years for signage, but potentially longer stretches for an actual business to close its doors.
A Downtown Corridor Already Under the Microscope
San Bruno's downtown has been the subject of a string of planning conversations this year. An April 14 council meeting included proposals for zoning adjustments, public art funded through the city's art fund, and street lighting improvements backed by a photometric study, per records reviewed by app.govly.com. The central business district itself is zoned to support what the city's own code calls a vibrant downtown core meant to be an exciting destination for residents, workers and visitors, according to San Bruno's zoning code on eCode360.
One smoke shop sits at 484 San Mateo Ave. in downtown San Bruno, within the stretch of storefronts the city is now scrutinizing. Patty Medina said business owners and property operators need to contribute to improving downtown, a sentiment that echoes the council's broader aesthetic push covering lighting, exterior maintenance and repairs, and storefront visibility.
How Other Cities Have Handled Smoke Shop Crackdowns
San Bruno isn't the first California city to wrestle with how to regulate smoke shops through zoning. Fresno approved an ordinance that will shut down more than 100 smoke shops citywide, capping the total at 49 and limiting new openings within 1,000 feet of other smoke shops, schools, parks and daycare centers, according to YourCentralValley.com. Fresno's rules also cap store hours between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., and gave existing shops an 18-month amortization period to come into compliance after the regulations took effect in June 2025.
Amortization periods aren't unique to Fresno or San Bruno. National City's municipal code allows nonconforming uses to be phased out through amortization, though in general such uses can otherwise continue indefinitely until the business or property owner discontinues them, according to the city of National City, California.
What Comes Next for San Bruno
City staff will work out the details of a proposed amortization timeline and present it to the Planning Commission by the end of 2026. The broader downtown zoning updates are then expected to come back before the San Bruno City Council in January 2027, giving council members another chance to weigh in before any new rules take effect. Until then, the city's smoke shop ban, grace period and the rest of the downtown aesthetic overhaul remain works in progress, with no final closure timeline set.
