PAXTANG – Joshua Sanders just opened his vape shop Dec. 30.

It’s a great, corner location in a large space that was once a furniture store. But he may soon have to shutter his business or move elsewhere.

The same day Sanders opened East Coast Vapor in Paxtang, he learned borough officials are mulling a regulation that would prevent businesses such as his from operating in the downtown area of this town just outside of Harrisburg.

Borough manager Keldeen Stambaugh said the pending ordinance has been in the works for some time before Sanders came to town. If approved, the ordinance would change Paxtang’s zoning code to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes and vaping-related products in most of the borough.

A public hearing on the change is set for 6:15 p.m. Jan. 21 in the Paxtang Borough Municipal Building, 3422 Derry Street. Borough council will likely vote on the proposal that same night.

If approved, the new amended code would only allow the sale of vaping products in Paxtang’s commercial district, located roughly in the northwest, southwest and southeast corners of the borough. Such sales would be prohibited in the downtown district, where Sanders set up shop at 3440 Derry Street.

Paxtang zoning map by PennLive on Scribd

Had he known such an ordinance was under consideration, Sanders said he never would have purchased the property and moved there from Swatara Township, where he had been in business since 2011. Though borough officials say this ordinance has been in the works, Sanders said he called them in September, months before closing on the property, to ensure he could locate his vaping business there.

He told them he would be selling e-cigarettes and vaping products and was told “you’re good to go,” he said.

“I did my due diligence,” Sanders said Tuesday. “It blows my mind.”

Sanders said he has consulted an attorney.

While Stambaugh said she cannot comment on Sanders’ account of the situation due to the potential litigation, she noted this is a pending ordinance, and if it’s adopted, Sanders must comply with it.

“The borough is aware the property owner is selling vaping products,” she said, adding a business license has not been issued. “The zoning officer has issued an enforcement notice demanding the property owner comply with the proposed amendment."

Discussions on the measure date back many months to when council discussed a similar amendment to the code that now restricts potential medical marijuana dispensaries to the same commercial district, she noted.

The proposed ordinance indicates Paxtang Borough Council “has authority to zone for the promotion, protection, and facilitation of public health, safety, morals and general welfare.”

“It seems like they don’t want a vape shop here, and they’re doing whatever they can so I won’t be here,” Sanders said.

The alternative to him operating a business there is the building sitting vacant, off of the tax rolls, he said. The building where he is operating is the former Johnny’s Discount Furniture.

Vaping made headlines in 2019 with numerous reports of death and lung injury, which Stambaugh said was a factor that fueled borough council’s discussion in developing the proposal. It comes as the Trump Administration announced Thursday it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavors from small, cartridge-based e-cigarettes that are popular with high school students, The Associated Press is reporting. But menthol and tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on the market.

The flavor ban will also entirely exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.

In September, Trump and his top health officials said they would soon sweep virtually all flavored e-cigarettes from the market because of their appeal to young children and teens. But that effort had stalled after vaping lobbyists pushed back and White House advisers told Trump the ban could cost him votes with adults who vape, according to The Associated Press.

Vaping proponents argue that vaping has helped many to quit smoking cigarettes and is a safer alternative than smoking tobacco

Paxtang is one of just a few Pennsylvania municipalities that have taken stances on vaping.

In Irwin in Westmoreland County, the borough is part of the “Young Lungs at Play” program, which prohibits smoking and vaping in designated parks and playgrounds. The borough recently updated its ordinance to comply with the program, barring vaping from parks, borough manager Shari Martino explained.

In Blairsville in Indiana County, borough council earlier this year voted to prohibit vaping on public property, where tobacco was already prohibited, the Indiana Gazette reported in June.

And last month in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney signed a bill banning the sale of flavored vaping pods and those with high levels of nicotine at stores teens and children are allowed to enter, Philly.com reports.

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