HENRICO COUNTY, Va. β Henrico County leaders say they are continuing to look for ways to limit the number of vape shops that open in the county.
Twice in the past year they've passed ordinances to address vape shops opening up in the county, but feel those ordinances are not having the desired effect.
Just last month, they banned vape shops from being able to access a county investment program. While last year, they put limits on how close new stores could open up to schools, parks, and even other vape shops.
They also put in a requirement said stores with at least 15-percent of display space dedicated to vape products -- would need a special permit to open.
But the county says since that was passed, they've identified at least 16 stores that have opened that might qualify, but they never got a permit application.
The county said it was now investigating how that happened.
County officials say they're concerned these stores are setting up too close to places where underage teenagers frequent and a lot of their product is targeted at that age group.
They added some items sold in those stories come from China and aren't FDA-approved.
"The [county] manager, his staff, my peers, we're going to work together, hopefully with our state. I know the Attorney General's Office is going to get involved, our local delegation to the state level as participatory as well. So it's going to be an all hands on deck approach. It's going to be a multi-pronged approach, and we're going to use every tool in toolbox that we can to mitigate this health and safety concern to our community," Henrico County Supervisor Roscoe Cooper III (Fairfield District) said.
In terms of what more they could do, county officials didn't want to say what all the options they're looking at -- but did indicate one could be increasing the distance allowed between vape stores and parks from two to three-thousand feet. They can't increase the distance from school because they're limited by state law.
"We're looking for any tool in the toolkit that could be utilized to try to attack or address this issue of the proliferation of vape stores, and that would include other things, which, again, we're leaving no stone unturned in terms of resources. So whether it be at the federal level, state level or local level," Henrico County Director of Community Revitalization Eric Leabough said.
Do you think cities and county need to further regulate vape shops? Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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