No person shall sell or offer to sell licensed products without first having obtained a license to do so from the city.
(A) Application. An application for a license to sell licensed products shall be made on a form provided by the city. The application shall contain the full name of the applicant, the applicant's residential and business addresses and telephone numbers, the name of the business for which the license is sought, and any additional information the city deems necessary. Upon receipt of a completed application, the City Administrator shall forward the application to the Council for action at its next regularly scheduled Council meeting. If the City Administrator shall determine that an application is incomplete, the application shall be returned to the applicant with notice of the information necessary to make the application complete.
(B) Action. The City Council may either approve or deny the license, or it may delay action for such reasonable period of time as necessary to complete any investigation of the application or the applicant it deems necessary. If the City Council should approve the license, the City Administrator shall issue the license to the applicant. If the Council denies the license, notice of the denial shall be given to the applicant along with notice of the applicant's right to appeal the Council's decision.
(C) Term. All licenses issued under this chapter shall be valid for one calendar year from the date of issue.
(E) Transfers. All licenses issued under this chapter shall be valid only on the premises for which the license was issued and only for the person to whom the license was issued. The transfer of any license to another location or person is prohibited.
(F) Moveable place of business. No license shall be issued to a moveable place of business. Only fixed location businesses are eligible to be licensed under this chapter.
(G) Display. All licenses shall be posted and displayed in plain view of the general public in the retail establishment.
(H) Renewal. The renewal of a license issued under this section shall be handled in the same manner as the original application. The request for a renewal shall be made at least 30 days, but no more than 60 days, before the expiration of the current license. The issuance of a license under this chapter shall be considered a privilege and not an absolute right of the applicant and shall not entitle the holder to an automatic renewal of the license.
(I) Fees. The fee for a tobacco license shall be set, and from time to time amended, by the City Council.
(J) Issuance as privilege and not a right. The issuance of a license issued under this section shall be considered a privilege and not an absolute right of the applicant and shall not entitle the holder to an automatic renewal of the license.
(K) Smoking. Smoking shall not be permitted, and no person shall smoke within the indoor area of any establishment with a retail tobacco license. Smoking for the purposes of sampling licensed products is prohibited.
(L) Samples prohibited. No person shall distribute samples of any licensed product free of charge or at a nominal cost. The distribution of licensed products as a free donation is prohibited.
(M) Proximity to certain institutions. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell, give away or deliver tobacco, tobacco-related devices, electronic delivery devices, or nicotine or lobelia delivery products within 300 feet of any youth-oriented facility, as measured by the shortest line between the space to be occupied by the proposed licensee and the occupied space of the youth-oriented facility, unless that person has been in the business of selling such products in that location before the date this section was enacted into law for at least one year.
(Ord. 98-3, passed 3-25-1998; Ord. 15-09, passed 10-12-2015; Ord. 21-01, passed 5-10-2021)
Cross-reference:
Fee schedule, see § 34.01