Burlingame delays new hookah and tobacco ordinance

Councilmembers will likely discuss the issue again at their March 4 meeting after the city attorney can notify impacted retailers, Mayor Donna Colson said. 

“It does strike me as a pretty significant economic action against a retailer we otherwise appreciate,” Councilmember Michael Brownrigg said, noting he could get behind the proposal but would prefer retailers be notified beforehand and given the opportunity to pass comment.

The council decided at its Nov. 20 meeting to allow for two Burlingame hookah locations,  moving forward with a modification to the San Mateo County model ordinance and exempting themselves from the county’s regulation program. One Burlingame venue, Society Bar and Lounge on Broadway, currently offers hookah, also known as shisha, and both supporters and detractors came to the November meeting to debate the topic.

“Just as we gave the hookah the opportunity to come, it seems fair,” Colson said. “I feel like that’s the most transparent form of government.”

Because the city has already moved forward with modifying the county tobacco retailer ordinance, they could theoretically continue to modify and keep tobacco sales at pharmacies legal if they so choose, Colson said. 

Vice Mayor Emily Beach, who opposed the hookah exemption, said that while she thought it could be beneficial to allow pharmacies time to get rid of existing tobacco stock, it should not be allowed long term.

“If there’s a little bit longer runway for people who have existing products and need to deal with that, that may be longer than two weeks. Maybe we give existing retailers a little bit longer,” she said. “But I think the spirit of it is the right thing to do, to get it out of pharmacies.” 

The remainder of the proposed tobacco retailer ordinance requires retailers to apply for annual permits of $672 a year and includes distanced-based requirements for new retailers, which cannot be located near “youth populated areas” like schools or playgrounds or within 500 feet of existing retailers. The program would implement two enforcement checks a year and strengthen penalties for violators caught selling illegal products or to minors. 

In an email statement, the owner of local convenience store Kwik & Convenient Market wrote in to express concern about the tobacco retail ordinance as a whole, suggesting that resources would be better served targeting illegal flavored vapes, rather than retailers who legally sell non-flavored products. 

“Local retailers including ourselves strictly adhere to all tobacco regulations,” the statement read. “The proposed ban on vapor products and the current tobacco ordinance raises serious concerns about our business viability and the well-being of our dedicated employees.” 

Flavored tobacco of any kind has been banned in California since 2022 under state law — with the exception of hookah tobacco or shisha, which is left up to individual municipalities to regulate — and was restricted in Burlingame following a 2019 City Council ordinance.

Although hookah will be legal at two Burlingame locations after the ordinance is approved, restrictions apply. Locations will be required to obtain a valid tobacco retailer permit, offer a no-nicotine option and minors will not be allowed where the hookah is sold. And though the language around minors on the premises is vague, it intentionally mimics state law on the subject, Assistant City Attorney Scott Spansail said. 

“If we put it into the ordinance and the state finds a different direction, we might be having an ordinance that violates state law,” he said. 

Discussions around hookah and the specifics of the retailer program are not the first conversations Burlingame has had around the legality of tobacco products and smoking. 

At its Nov. 20 meeting, the City Council approved a no-smoking ordinance that will extend the preexisting outdoor smoking ban on and around Broadway until Dec. 31, 2024, and add an identical pilot ban to downtown Burlingame that encompasses the area bordered by El Camino Real, California Drive, Howard and Chapin avenues and includes Burlingame Avenue.

The ordinance will also clarify that the ban applies only to the public right of way, like streets, parklets and public parking lots, and not private property like outdoor patios of bars and restaurants, Spansail said during the council’s Nov. 6 meeting. The California Clean Indoor Air Law already prohibits smoking in all indoor spaces except private smoking lounges or wholesale tobacco retailers.