Fairfax County leaders are taking preliminary steps to potentially restrict new tobacco and hemp retailers from locating in close proximity to schools and day-care facilities.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously yesterday (Tuesday) to direct county staff to begin studying the regulatory options available to localities under a law passed earlier this year by the Virginia General Assembly.
Approved unanimously by both chambers of the legislature in March and signed into law on April 5 by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the new law:
Allows a locality to regulate the retail-sale locations of tobacco products, nicotine-vapor products, alternative-nicotine products or hemp products intended for smoking for any such retail-sale location, and may prohibit a retail-sale location on property within 1,000 linear feet of a child day center or a public, private or parochial school.
The regulatory authority would not apply to existing outlets, a key provision that enabled the measure to move through the legislature without picking up opposition.
Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw, who asked for the staff study and report, said many questions remain to be worked through, but he was supportive of the measure’s intent.
“I think we all agree that we want to keep these products away from our schools and away from our kids,” he said, acknowledging that there “may be complications in terms of enforcement.”
The staff report will go to the board’s Land Use Policy Committee, which is chaired by Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith. No timeline was set for its ultimate consideration.
The 2023 Fairfax County Youth Survey, which is conducted annually among Fairfax County Public Schools students, found that 9.2% of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders reported vaping in their lifetime, and 4.5% reported smoking cigarettes.
Board Chairman Jeff McKay noted that those numbers have declined in recent years. The lifetime vaping rate, for example, has dropped from 27.9% of surveyed students in 2018, the first year that the topic was included in the survey.
“We still have to be vigilant in this area,” McKay said. “This is a tool the General Assembly gave us, that we can take advantage of.”
Alexandria City officials enacted a ban in November. Earlier this year, Arlington officials were supportive of the legislation, which was patroned by Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-3).
Photo via Reza Mehrad/Unsplash
