08-03-2025
City Council passes vape store ordinances
Across two meetings, the Lebanon City Council passed two ordinances adding more regulations to specialty smoke and vape stores.
At Tuesday's regular meeting, the council considered an ordinance requested by Ward 3 Councilor Camille Burdine to include vape shops in the city's Heavy Industrial zone and to limit the number of vape shops to one per 10,000 residents within the city limits.
With current zoning, this means vape shops can not open in the downtown area or commercial districts.
As of 2023, Lebanon's population was 48,112 people. Using that number, the new ordinance would limit the city to four vape shops. However, the language of the ordinance says 'The population is determined by the latest completed United States Decennial Census,' and the 2020 census listed Lebanon's population at 38,431 residents. This reduces the vape store limit to three.
The Planning Commission gave the ordinance a positive recommendation at its Jan. 28 meeting.
Officials say the ordinance does not impact already existing vape stores and only applies to future stores, effectively stopping new stores from opening based on the population ordinance.
Shops must be 500 feet from a school, church or daycare. Shops also must be 1,320 feet from another specialty smoke and vape shop.
However, the ordinance was written with two exhibits, and according to City Attorney Andy Wright, was meant to pass with either Exhibit A, which rezones vape shops to Heavy Industrial and prohibits operation in certain other zones, or with Exhibit B, which limits the number of stores by city population.
'Can we adopt both?' asked Ward 1 Councilor Joey Carmack.
'Divide the question,' replied Wright.
Dividing the question means the ordinance is amended and split into two separate ordinances.
The City of Goodlettsville passed a similar resolution recently, including the population restriction, against the recommendation of its city attorney.
Wright conducted research and spoke to Goodlettsville's city attorney. who reportedly said if that city gets sued due to the population limitation, they'll 'cross that bridge when they get to it.'
The rezoning option was added to make it more defensible, according to Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell.
The Council voted to separate the ordinance into two and passed both on first reading.
The Council also had a special meeting Thursday to 'clean up and get the vape store issue passed,' according to Carmack.
After discussion, both ordinances passed second reading, as did another ordinance regarding neon or LED signs that are 'public facing.'
The ordinance for the sign limitation reads 'Only one neon or LED sign per tenant, of a dimension of 14-inch by 7-inch, is only permitted for wall or windows signs. No other neon or LED lights that are public-facing, or facing the right-of-way, are permitted,' with some exceptions.
The City Council says this is retroactive and can be enforced for already existing signage.
