Milwaukee Plan Commission green lights new rules for vape retailers

The Milwaukee Plan Commission has recommended for approval new zoning rules for e-cigarette retailers, moving the city one step forward in an effort to curb the expansion of vape shops in the city.

The new rules would prevent tobacco and e-cigarette retailers from being within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school, library, day care center, park or playground, and within 500 feet of another tobacco or e-cigarette retailer, or a premises that holds a cigarette and tobacco license.

The updated zoning regulations come four months into a six-month moratorium on any new establishments that sell e-cigarettes. The city started the pause in February, to give it time to establish the new rules.

More:Milwaukee Common Council passes moratorium that would prevent new vape shops for 6 months

At a public hearing prior to the vote Monday, advocates applauded the new restrictions, saying they are critical for preventing youth from having easy access to vapes and other tobacco products. Ald. Jonathan Brostoff ― who sponsored the ordinance alongside Alds. Marina Dimitrijevic and Michael Murphy, and who led the effort to implement the moratorium ― used Brady Street as an example of what the potential impact of the new regulations could be.

"Because of, for example, the multiple schools that Brady Street has, a couple parks, etc., it really wouldn't be an area moving forward where we could have more vape shops, because it is so close to some of the youth-serving amenities in our community," Brostoff said.

"A tobacco or e-cigarette retailer" is defined in the new rule as an establishment that where 10% or more of the items sold or public floor space is dedicated to cigarettes, tobacco products or e-cigarettes. The rules would not apply to existing businesses and also would not, on the other end of the equation, put limits on where libraries, day care centers, parks or playgrounds can establish new locations.

The new regulation will head to the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee next Tuesday, and if approved there will head to the full council for approval.

Sydney Swift, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate intern at the city's Department of City Development, presented the proposal to the commission and did the research that helped inform its development. The proposal was modeled on what other cities such as Madison, West Allis and Wauwatosa have done to control the spread of vape shops, she said.

"There are a couple of important takeaways from the research that was conducted, and that's that these sort of retail uses have outsized impacts on youth, in particular, and they are especially harmful when concentrated near one another as well," Swift said.

E-cigarette and tobacco retailers also use marketing tactics and create "real or perceived ease of access" that encourage impulse purchases and can undermine attempts to quit, Swift added.

Speakers from many community groups that work to address tobacco use and vaping in the city spoke in support of the proposal, particularly from the perspective of the impact that vaping has on youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

Aaliyah Torres is prevention coordinator for the United Migrant Opportunity Services and also runs a coalition called the Wisconsin Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Prevention Network. She shared data with the commission from her work with local youth to conduct compliance checks on e-cigarette retailers through the statewide Wisconsin Wins program.

"There are three times more tobacco retailers within 500 feet of schools within predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods compared to predominantly white neighborhoods," Torres said.

The young people she worked with told Torres that e-cigarettes are popular at their schools, and are being used on playgrounds, in hallways between classes, in bathrooms and even sometimes in class. Sweet candy and dessert flavors make the products all the more appealing to youths, Torres said.

From October 2022 through May 2023, Torres said, the group conducted 164 compliance checks on retailers. Of those, 42 retailers sold commercial tobacco products to the youths without checking IDs. All of the youths helping with the compliance checks were under 18 years old.

Edgar Mendez, a representative of the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Poverty Network, noted that in that organization's work surveying more than 600 north and south side residents a few years ago, participants overwhelmingly agreed that having a tobacco retailer near their home made it harder to quit smoking. When asked if they supported efforts to reduce or limit the number of tobacco retailers near schools, parks and youth-serving organizations, 80% said "yes."

"I want you all to know that there is broad community support and I'm sure it's because we all have a vested interest in protecting our children," Mendez said.

On a personal note, he added that his daughter and his niece are in fifth and sixth grade, and both have come home with notes this school year alerting him that their classmates had been caught with vapes.

"They're both 11," he said. "That just speaks to how huge this problem is getting, how dangerous this is. Just the fear of thinking about where these kids are going to be 10, 15 years down the road, picking up this deadly addiction at such a young age."

Charlie Leonard works at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute running the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance. They presented on data from the alliance from 2017 that showed a disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ youth use tobacco products.

And the impact in the LGBTQ+ community is on adults too, they said. Leonard surveyed people at Pridefest last year and found that out of 100 respondents, 34% still use commercial tobacco products.

"While rates are dropping for the general population, this community is still being targeted and it's still is an issue," Leonard said. "This ordinance is a step toward reducing the impact and the targeting that's happening to my community."

Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at@DeviShastri.