Board Puts New Tobacco Licenses on Hold

The approved a measure Tuesday to put a moratorium through June 22 on all new tobacco licenses while village officials asses how it hands out sales permits to businesses in the future.

In the past, tobacco licenses were approved on a case-by-case basis, but officials want to develop a consistent process, said Village Administrator Jerry Ducay.

"This would not mean we wouldn't approve licenses in the future," Ducay said Tuesday. "It just means we want to determine the process. Right now we have no process."

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Village officials will be investigating a variety of approaches when it comes creating this new process, Ducay said in an interview Wednesday. The village could create different levels of licenses to suit particular businesses, he added. For instance, one license could apply only to tobacco shops and another would be for convenience stores. The board also will be looking at including other factors when it comes to approving a tobacco license, such as a business' proximity to a school, Ducay said.

The amount of businesses that sell tobacco products in Frankfort is another aspect of licensing the board will examine, said Ducay, adding that it's an open question whether the village has reached its saturation point. Trustee Mike Stevens said Monday that Frankfort currently has 16 to 18 stores that sell cigarettes and other tobacco products, and Ducay said the village has seen an increase in applications for new licenses.

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But Ducay stressed that this is not about targeting tobacco outlets. In the past, the village has taken a similar approach when officials saw an influx of banks and auto repair shops, he said.

"This is where we can give staff and village residents an opportunity to look at what we're doing, and if our residents think we're should be doing a different or better job on how we handle those issues," said village attorney George Mahoney, who has been involved in reassessing the license process. "Maybe we're doing a great job. Maybe we could do a better job. But this gives us the opportunity to study and pause and think about what's best for our residents and this issue and to come to a good decision."

Rose Gillece, however, doesn't think the board is making a good decision by suspending new tobacco licenses, even temporarily. At Tuesday's meeting, the senior broker for Tinley Park-based Network Commercial Real Estate Group told board members and Mayor Jim Holland that this action had put her client who had signed a lease to open a tobacco shop on LaGrange Road in the lurch.

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Kishor Chavda, who was to open Fresh Tobacco for Less at 2095 S. LaGrange Road, had been working with the village, completing the proper paperwork and inspections. This was until he was told late last week to come to Tuesday's board meeting Tuesday, which was the first anyone connected with the new shop had heard about the tobacco license moratorium, Gillece said.

Chavda is locked into his lease, and he will wait to see how the village proceeds when it comes to tobacco licenses, Gillece said. Holland said a new process could be developed before June, but he cautioned that these types of things take time.