A smoke shop operating at Sheridan Plaza has been cited because smoke shops are not allowed in the plaza’s C-2 mixed-use commercial zone, City Planner Jack Connelly said, according to The Daily Gazette. Property owner Eric Jacobov has 30 days to comply with city regulations. Jacobov told the newspaper he was unaware the tenant had received a citation.
Zoning and tobacco sales are separate questions
The city’s zoning classification turns on what a business sells and how much of its floor space, product, income or advertising is devoted to specified smoking products. Under the current code, reaching 40% on any of those measures qualifies a business as a smoke shop; a qualifying shop may sell entirely smoking-related merchandise, but must still follow zoning restrictions, Connelly said. The available account does not provide measurements for the Sheridan Plaza business.
The shop was presented to the Planning Board as a convenience store, with the applicant saying nicotine would not be sold on site. Connelly said some nicotine products were on sale, according to the Daily Gazette. Those details describe why the city is treating the business as a smoke shop; they do not establish whether the city’s proposed broader definition has taken effect.
A proposed local change remains undecided
Schenectady officials were considering lowering the 40% threshold to 25% after residents raised concerns about convenience stores functioning as smoke shops. The Planning Board recommended the lower threshold in August, and the City Council was expected to revisit it the following week, Connelly and Councilmember Doreen Ditoro told the Daily Gazette. The change had not yet been adopted at the time of that report. If approved, the city would still need to decide how to enforce it and how much time businesses would have to comply.
State license is not the same as a city zoning rule
New York State separately requires anyone possessing cigarettes or other tobacco products for sale to be licensed by the state Tax Department, the department says. Ditoro has also supported a city tobacco license, but that is a separate proposal; the available account does not specify how Schenectady would administer or enforce one. A New York City Council legislation text offers a distinct example of the licensing approach: it proposed expanding retail-dealer licenses to cover tobacco-product retailers and setting license caps. That document is a proposal, not evidence that Schenectady has adopted such a system.
The immediate outcome at Sheridan Plaza therefore depends on compliance with the existing zoning rules. Whether the city changes its threshold, creates a local tobacco license or sets new compliance procedures remains unresolved.
