Title
Smoking Lounge, Tobacco, and Liquor Licensing Ordinances
History
The Village Code currently regulates the sale of tobacco and alternative nicotine products. Building on that framework, staff along with Village Counsel prepared comprehensive amendments to Chapter 15 and Chapter 4 to address emerging business models (smoking lounges/hookah lounges), to clarify licensing classifications, and to add operational safeguards (surveillance, ventilation, Fire Code compliance).
This item presents a coordinated set of amendments to the Village Code to regulate free-standing smoking lounges and to align our tobacco and liquor licensing frameworks with modern business models and current public-health law. The Chapter 15 revisions (Tobacco Products) define cigar and hookah lounges, establish licensing classes, and set robust application, ventilation, surveillance, spacing, and fire-safety standards. The Chapter 4 revisions (Retail Liquor) add two smoking-lounge-specific liquor licenses-SL-1 (BYOB) and SL-2 (Appurtenant Liquor Sales)-while clearly limiting when alcohol may be consumed or carried off-site. The recommended ordinances include initial license caps set to zero with the option to increase the number of licenses.
In parallel, the Smoke-Free Illinois Act (SFIA) was expanded to include electronic cigarettes, and the Act continues to recognize a retail tobacco store exemption when strict conditions are met (free-standing buildings and a revenue threshold). The Chapter 15 update integrates these realities into the code by requiring that establishments seeking to rely on SFIA’s exemption annually document their status through the IDPH affidavit (=80% tobacco revenue) as part of licensing and renewal. This protects public health while providing a legal path for qualified operators.
What the ordinances do
Chapter 15 (Tobacco Products). The draft defines “Smoking Lounge,” “Cigar Lounge (Class C1),” and “Hookah Lounge (Class C2),” and builds an application process...
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