|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Redwood City Council voted 5-2 on Monday to move forward with adopting San Mateo County’s tobacco ordinance, a step that would bring county enforcement to the city and prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco like hookah and vapes if the ordinance receives final approval in June.
Council members Chris Sturken and Marcella Padilla opposed the motion.
“This is a challenging subject for us here,” said Council member Jeff Gee. “I don’t think we take the decision we’re going to make tonight lightly.”
The council voted to waive the first reading, introduce an ordinance amending Redwood City’s smoking regulations, and set a public hearing and second reading for June 8. The ordinance would repeal and replace the city’s tobacco retail permit rules and adopt San Mateo County’s tobacco retailer permit program by reference. The ordinance would take effect 30 days after adoption.
City staff recommended the boomerang back to county enforcement as a more efficient, cost-effective and immediately implementable approach to regulating tobacco retailers in Redwood City, at no cost to the city’s General Fund.
“We have a tight budget,” Amanda Anthony, the city’s economic development director, said as a presenter at the Monday meeting. “When it comes to staff recommendation, really it’s a little bit about the money.”
Redwood City’s February financial report projected annual shortfalls of up to $19.7 million beginning in fiscal year 2028-29, in large part because of the city’s revised assumption that the state will not provide at least $4.7 million in funding.
Redwood City currently has 55 businesses that sell tobacco products, including convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, hookah lounges, and smoke shops. Fifteen of these businesses have either changed ownership or opened within the past three years without obtaining a Tobacco Retailer Permit from the county, despite Redwood City’s Municipal Code requirement.
In response to complaints from residents and business owners, the city conducted code enforcement inspections in March and April 2025. While doing so, staff observed some retailers selling flavored tobacco, which is prohibited under state and local law, and vapes, which are banned in Redwood City. While some stopped selling these products after receiving citations, others continued to do so, according to the city’s April 27 staff report.
Businesses in California that intend to sell tobacco products must obtain a Cigarette and Tobacco Products Retailer’s License from the state, a state seller’s permit for reporting sales and use tax and a local Tobacco Retailer Permit, according to the staff report.
For over a decade, from 2009 to 2022, Redwood City partnered with San Mateo County to administer a Tobacco Retailer Permit program, which required retailers to obtain permits, verify customer age and comply with display regulations, the staff report stated. The county conducted annual inspections and imposed penalties for violations, which allowed the city to maintain regulatory oversight without dedicating significant staffing resources.
In April 2022, the city amended its ordinance to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco and vapes in Redwood City, as well as tobacco products in pharmacies. Hookah establishments — like The Sandwich Spot, Pasha Mediterranean and RocknWraps & Kabobs — with a valid county Tobacco Retailer Permit as of Nov. 22, 2021, were exempt. The county stopped issuing permits in May 2022 to avoid inconsistencies between county and city programs.
One year later, in May 2023, the county adopted a new ordinance that included new location requirements away from “youth-populated areas” and the prohibition of coupons and deals for some tobacco and smoking devices. Nine jurisdictions adopted the county ordinance, which stipulates that if a city deviates from the county ordinance, it would have to carry out its own Tobacco Retailer Permit program, which is resource-intensive.
The intention behind stricter regulations on behalf of the county was to reduce youth access as vaping became popular among teens, especially men, Latinos and the LGBTQ community, Economic Development Director Amanda Anthony said at the Monday meeting. Research shows, she said, that a higher density of tobacco retailers is correlated with higher use rates.
Through community outreach, city staff found that, when faced with a choice between a county or local tobacco enforcement program, residents generally preferred a city-run program, regardless of cost, the April 27 staff report stated. Moreover, the three hookah businesses in Redwood City said loss of hookah services and associated food and beverage sales could reduce profitability so substantially that it could lead to their closure.
Nearly one in 10 Redwood City residents smokes, according to the Healthy San Mateo County database. Moreover, at least 5% of San Mateo County 11th graders used tobacco and/or vapes in the span of 30 days, the California School Climate, Health and Learning Survey revealed.
The county ordinance will establish stricter regulations governing the sale of tobacco, including a ban of shisha/hookah, as well as location restrictions: new retailers must be at least 500 feet from one another and at least 1,000 feet from schools and other youth-populated places. As in the past, coupons, discounts and convenient selling methods, such as vending machines or flea-market pop-ups, are also banned.
Retailers will have to apply directly to the county for a permit, which costs $328 for new applicants and $885 annually for renewal. Fines start at $500 and run up to $1,000 for each subsequent violation, and permits may be suspended for up to 30 days for the first violation, with up to a five-year revocation for repeated noncompliance.
Businesses in Redwood City with a valid permit as of 2022 are not subject to location-based restrictions. However, all tobacco retailers in Redwood City will have to apply for county permits by June 8, when the county ordinance goes into effect.
The benefits of the county ordinance, according to the Monday staff report, include the county’s administration of retailer education, review of permit applications, inspections and code enforcement, all at no cost to Redwood City’s General Fund. Tobacco retailers would also pay lower permitting fees, and location restrictions would reduce the number of tobacco retailers over time. The downside is that the county requires full compliance with the provisions in its ordinance, including flavored tobacco for on-site consumption and hookah sale.
The city’s adoption of the county ordinance could save it significant money and resources, as two full-time code enforcement officers and a manager handled 558 complaints in 2025, according to the staff report. With the city’s current level of resources, the report said only about 50% of cases were completed in a month.
Over a dozen members of the public shared comments at the meeting, with about half in favor of the city adopting the county ordinance and half against.
One commenter, George Bazlamit, acknowledged that April is Arab American Heritage Month, yet banning hookah, a cultural tradition across the Middle East and other Eastern regions, “at a time that there is heightened sensitivity” regarding Arab nations, feels “personal” and “discriminatory.”
The city council did endeavor at the start of the month to specifically name April “American Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month” in Redwood City, as well as to reaffirm the city’s commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity.
Several owners of hookah establishments in Redwood City offered comments as well, underscoring the importance of hookah to their background and business, as well as their commitment to ensuring only those 21 and older have access to hookah.
The owner of Pasha Mediterranean, who goes by Ayoub, said that “hookah, for us, is not just a product. It’s a part of a long-standing cultural tradition.” He said the experience of smoking hookah creates a space where people of different backgrounds can “come together, relax and connect in a peaceful and respectful setting.”
Council members were torn over the impact on small businesses that the county ordinance could impose, despite the importance of squelching tobacco use in Redwood City.
Gee, who said he’s “not a fan of regulating business,” conceded to the county ordinance after learning from city staff about the dysfunctions of the local tobacco enforcement system.
City Attorney Veronica Ramirez said there has been no enforcement in Redwood City in four years, since the shift from county to local oversight.
“You’re seeing businesses pop up without any regulation, without any enforcement, and until we have something adopted by the city council, there’s nothing we can enforce,” Ramirez said.
Anthony explained that the city’s ordinance requires tobacco retailers to have a permit, but neither the city nor the county has been issuing them.
“If somebody comes in and asks me, ‘Can I open this business?’” Anthony said, “My answer is, ‘No, you can’t get a permit for that,’ but they are choosing to open it anyway.”
Community Development Director Jeff Schwab added that local enforcement has been complaint-based, rather than proactive, and when the city does enforce its tobacco ordinance, many retailers refuse to comply.
Council member Diane Howard acknowledged that while the community has “competing values,” she will always side with public health and community safety, especially for “our young people in this city.” Her hope in supporting the county ordinance was to “move to a smoke-free California in the future.”
Council member Marcella Padilla said she felt conflicted because she is concerned about tobacco use among youth, but has smoked hookah with friends in college herself. She feels it’s unfortunate that hookah businesses operating in good faith are “being kind of lumped in” with tobacco retailers who are not.
In voting against the county ordinance, Council member Chris Sturken noted that while “we are facing a deficit” and the city needs to “consider carefully each dollar we spend,” he is sensitive to the arguments made by public commenters about the cultural significance of hookah.
“Because of the value of the cultural traditions that are represented, as well as the revenue that is generated by our local businesses representing downtown where these three businesses reside, it is important to me and my responsibility to support and uplift small businesses,” Sturken said.
The ordinance will go to a public hearing for a second reading in June before going into effect. Should the city adopt the county ordinance, the first steps would be for the county to identify Redwood City tobacco businesses and inform them of the new ordinance requirements, including the county’s permit process and two unannounced inspections per year.
