San Mateo County will provide cities with tobacco regulation services if they adopt a 2023 ordinance banning sales of flavored tobacco — including hookah — and e-smoking devices at new and existing retailers.
The ordinance also includes distance-based requirements for new retailers, which cannot be located near “youth populated areas” like schools or playgrounds or within 500 feet of existing retailers.
San Bruno city officials attempted to get a Board of Supervisors amendment to the ordinance that would allow existing hookah shops that had maintained all required licensing to continue selling the product.
However, it was discovered during this process that Paradise Hookah Lounge did not have its required state license, Councilmember Tom Hamilton said. While the business reapplied and obtained the license, the lapse disqualified it from the amendment regardless.
“We had gotten all the way to the end and we were getting ready to bring this to the full Board of Supervisors for a vote,” Hamilton said. “That killed it.”
Some neighboring cities, like Burlingame, chose to proceed with a local ordinance that allowed for hookah usage. Implementing and enforcing a similar ordinance in San Bruno would cost approximately $250,000 a year, with some cost recovery from fees but general fund subsidy likely, staff said.
Fully recovering the cost of such a program would come to around $8,500 per tobacco retailer — there are 34 licensed retailers within city limits, who currently pay around $1,000 a year in fees, per a staff report.
San Bruno discussed the challenges with adopting the county’s tobacco ordinance in February 2024. Now, after its unsuccessful attempt for an amendment, the City Council unanimously moved forward to introduce that ordinance.
“We really hoped we could find a resolution,” Councilmember Michael Salazar said. “We’ve run out of options at this point.”
There will be a public hearing on the ordinance March 11.
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