(Photo via Unsplash).
Cortland officials are proposing a local law that would limit retail cigarette sale establishments and restrict sales to specific areas in the city.
City mayor Scott Steve said at Tuesday’s meeting that the idea of the proposed local law is to put 1,000-foot buffer zones around all of the area’s schools, the Cortland County YMCA, YWCA Cortland and more.
Steve said there are 18 licensed cigarette sales points in Cortland. Of that total of licenses, four of them are not in the proposed buffer zone. This includes Joe’s Kwik Mart, Smoker’s Choice and Family Dollar on Clinton Avenue, and the Speedway gas station on Port Watson Street.
Since those four establishments are out of the buffer zone, Steve said they would be “grandfathered” into the proposed law.
Steve said the city would implement a max number of licensed tobacco sales. Once a local business ceases operations, it will not be able to reapply for a license.
“This will eliminate a lot of the other ones popping up too,” Steve said, noting the effort to keep the specific areas “family-oriented” and “out of the buffer (zone).”
A public hearing on the city’s proposed law is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m. Further details on the proposed law have yet to be determined.
