Sayville vape shop fights to stay in business district
A shop that sells vaporization smoking products in Sayville’s commercial district is in legal limbo because of a zoning regulation passed by Islip Town officials requiring vape businesses to operate in industrial areas.
BlackWaterVapor, which opened in December 2015, is nestled between mom-and-pop shops and corporate stores on Main Street in the hamlet’s business district.
But an Islip zoning ordinance enacted May 24, 2016, lumps vape stores and vape lounges in the same zoning category as strip clubs — labeled businesses with “adult uses.” The vape shop is now zoned for the business district.
Representatives for the shop went before Islip’s Zoning Board of Appeals on Dec. 11. During that meeting, attorney Donald J. King who represents the store’s owner, argued the board is legally obligated to grant the shop nonconforming use in a business district, allowing it to continue on Main Street.
“You can’t put somebody out of business,” King said. “You should be grandfathered in. … If people had their way, we’d have prohibition again. There would be no bars. … This place never received a summons [for] selling to anybody under 21 — so, that’s pretty significant.”
Zoning Board of Appeals members openly questioned how the law applies to the store. The board refrained from a vote as it sought legal clarification. King said the board has 62 days from the Dec. 11 meeting to approve or deny the request for nonconforming use.
According to the Islip ordinance, adult-uses business are among those that “due to their very nature, have serious objectionable characteristics. … The location of these uses in regard to areas where youth may regularly assemble and the general atmosphere encompassing their operation is of great concern to the Town of Islip.”
Mike Shannon, owner of BlackWaterVapor in downtown Sayville, at his business Jan. 3, 2019. The business has come under the ire of the Town of Islip, who has recently categorized vape shops as being adult only and is attempting to rezone businesses like Shannon's accordingly. Credit: Johnny Milano
The stores are relegated to "industrial 1" districts, the ordinance said.
At the meeting last month, Maureen Casaburi, one of two Sayville residents who attended to speak against the vape store’s zoning request, said she worries about the store’s location.
“It is very close to two parks in our town. It’s right on Main Street. There is a candy store nearby. … The product itself has become an issue, not just in Suffolk County, all over. So, we’re concerned as parents,” she said.
Owner Michael Shannon, 32, of Sayville, last week called his business a “harm-reduction” shop. He said vaporizing has helped him, and countless others who are frequent patrons, quit smoking cigarettes. Vape businesses should never have been “put in with strip clubs, and peep shows and adult book stores. … It’s completely two different industries and they should have been zoned differently,” Shannon said.
Charlie Gee, 27, of Oakdale, is a “rewards member” at the store. He also argued that vaping is healthier than smoking and said the store should not move.
“It’s the best shop on the island,” Gee said. “I love that it is right in town. It’s just a quick walk-in, walk-out.”
'We have to do better' Newsday high school sports editor Gregg Sarra talks about a bench-clearing, parent-involved incident at a Half Hollow Hills West basketball game.
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