Vape and tobacco shops would be barred from Horizon West neighborhood centers and kept 1,000 feet from schools. Commissioners hold the first hearing Tuesday.

Orange County wants to stop new tobacco and vape shops from opening in Horizon West’s neighborhood centers. A draft zoning ordinance would also keep any new tobacco shop in the county at least 1,000 feet from a school and from another tobacco shop.

The Board of County Commissioners holds the first of two public hearings on the ordinance Tuesday. The item is on the Oct. 27 agenda among the public hearings scheduled for 5:01 p.m. The second hearing is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, according to the county’s legal notice published Sunday. Both meetings are in the County Commission Chambers at 201 S. Rosalind Ave. in Orlando.

What changes in Horizon West

Horizon West is unincorporated, so Orange County’s zoning code governs what can open here. The ordinance touches two parts of that code written for Horizon West.

The county’s June 30 work session presentation set out the current rules. Tobacco shops are:

  • permitted by right in the Horizon West Neighborhood Center District
  • permitted by right in all five Horizon West Town Center districts
  • already prohibited in Horizon West Village Centers

Under the draft ordinance, tobacco shops join the list of prohibited uses in the neighborhood center district of the Village Planned Development Code. That list already bars labor pools and hotels.

In the Town Center, tobacco shops stay permitted. But the revised Town Center land use table ties each listing to the new distance rules. That covers the Urban Residential, Corporate Campus Mixed Use, Traditional Town Center, Retail/Wholesale and Corporate Neighborhood Center districts.

The new rules

Wherever a tobacco shop is still allowed in the county, the draft says it must:

  • be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest public or private elementary, middle or high school
  • be at least 1,000 feet from any other tobacco shop
  • get a county zoning permit confirming the location complies

Distance is measured in a straight line between the nearest property lines of the two parcels.

The ordinance also writes the county’s first definition of a tobacco shop. It is a store with 20% or more of its floor area given to tobacco or nicotine products. The definition of tobacco product covers vapes and other electronic nicotine devices and their parts.

Seven other areas would ban tobacco shops outright. They include the International Drive district, the Pine Hills Neighborhood Improvement District and the Four Corners Community Village Center, about eight miles south of Horizon West.

How it got here

Commissioner Nicole Wilson asked for the discussion in a Feb. 16 memo, according to the work session presentation. Her request covered distance from schools and a ban in the Four Corners village center. The board told staff to start work on April 7.

At the June 30 work session, Wilson moved to proceed with an ordinance. Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad seconded. The county’s legislative record shows five votes in favor and one commissioner absent.

County staff told the board they studied 15 jurisdictions. All of them required some distance from schools, most often 500 to 1,000 feet. In a May 21 stakeholder meeting, Orange County Public Schools and the county’s Drug Free Community Office supported the changes, the presentation said. The Florida Department of Health was generally supportive and asked the county to consider convenience stores and mobile vape shops too.

What it does not do

Florida law sets the rules on who can buy tobacco, the presentation noted. The state requires a license to sell it, sets the buying age at 21 and bars counties from stricter rules on age, marketing, sales or delivery. So the ordinance is a zoning rule about where a shop can open. It does not change who can buy.

Grocery stores, gas stations and drugstores that sell tobacco as a sideline are not tobacco shops under the 20% floor-area test. The draft does not say how it treats tobacco shops that are already open.

What it means for you

  • If you want to speak, attend Tuesday’s 5:01 p.m. hearing or the Nov. 10 hearing at 2 p.m. Both are at the County Administration Center in downtown Orlando.
  • The proposed ordinance can be read at the Comptroller’s Clerk of the Board office, fourth floor, 201 S. Rosalind Ave., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The draft and its land use tables are also linked above.
  • Questions go to the Orange County Zoning Division at 407-836-5856.
  • If you are planning a store in a Horizon West shopping center, check the zoning rules for your parcel before signing a lease.

Our public schools guide lists every school serving Horizon West, and public notices tracks county hearings that affect the area.