MISSION VIEJO – E-cigarette shops are still welcome in Mission Viejo, after a divided City Council shot down a proposal to temporarily block them from opening.

“I don’t think it’s fair to try to put a moratorium on a business that’s not illegal,” Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht said during Monday night’s meeting. “People have a right to have a personal use.”

Councilwoman Rhonda Reardon proposed the moratorium after learning about the lack of state or federal regulations for e-cigarettes. She wanted to give staff time to study how other cities are responding to the recent explosion in popularity of the devices and bring back recommendations for a policy in Mission Viejo.

“If you want to put a moratorium, put it on cigarettes. We know they’re killing people,” Councilman Dave Leckness said, with the jury still out on the health effects of vaping devices.

While the battery-powered devices are designed to vaporize a liquid substance that typically includes nicotine, Reardon pointed out they can be used to vaporize things like marijuana.

“If you think you’re going to stop an illegal use by putting a moratorium, it ain’t gonna happen,” Schlicht said. “Every product can be misused. A car can go 100 mph in a 30 mph zone.”

The city has been treating e-cigarette businesses the same way it treats tobacco shops, allowing them to open so long as they secure a conditional use permit.

One of two e-cigarette shops in Mission Viejo is operating without proper permits, and city staff members are working to bring the Via Fabricante business in compliance.

The other is E-Cig City, on the corner of Marguerite and Crown Valley parkways. Leckness said he recently visited the shop “undercover” to see how they did business. There were no pipes or psychedelic posters in sight, he joked, thwarting a misconception about all vape shops being fronts for stores that sell drug-related paraphernalia.

E-Cig City owner James Whiting told the City Council he’s OK with regulations for vape shops, but doesn’t support banning them. Whiting explained how his father-in-law founded the first e-cigarette shop in the state in Laguna Beach after the devices helped him kick a three-pack-a-day habit.

“It’s a healthier alternative,” said Whiting, who moved from Boise, Idaho, in August to open the Mission Viejo shop.

Reardon said she wasn’t interested in shutting down Whiting’s business, which she said could serve as a model for regulations that might govern future vape shops in the city. However, she wanted to stop any other businesses from opening until those regulations were in place.

Reardon’s motion for at least a 45-day moratorium on e-cigarette shops failed 3-2, with only Mayor Trish Kelley on her side.

Leckness then motioned for staff to prepare a zoning ordinance with guidelines for e-cigarette shops, but without blocking new businesses in the meantime. No one seconded his motion and it died on the floor.

Reardon then asked for staff to do some further research into how Laguna Niguel is handling e-cigarette shops, with businesses there blocked thanks to how they’re classified in city zoning codes. That motion passed unanimously just before midnight, with the City Council expected to take the topic up again in late May.

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