By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — A motion to add a section regulating the establishment and operating of smoking lounges, and limiting the number allowed to seven, was passed 4-2 during at the June 25 City Council meeting.
Councilmen Dave Abdallah and Robert Constan voted no and Councilwoman Lisa Hicks-Clayton was absent from the meeting, which followed a study session on the topic.
The motion was made on the second reading of the proposed ordinance, but Corporate Counsel Gary Miotke said the second reading puts the ordinance into effect after its published.
According to the findings and purpose of the smoking lounges ordinance, “the city council finds that based on the characteristics of the use and past experience with these uses, a need has emerged to develop regulations to protect public health, safety and welfare applicable to smoking lounge and facilities commonly described as tobacco retail specialty stores, cigar bars, 0 percent nicotine establishments, hookah lounges and bars and other smoking facilities by any other name, that my desire to operate within the city.
The city has seven hookah lounges which Councilman Bill Bazzi listed during the meeting as 4 Season Hookah, 25022 W. Warren; Blue Moon Hookah Lounge, 6125 N. Telegraph Road; Cigar & Cigarette Shop, 22226 Van Born Road; The Lava Lounge, 26507 Ford Road; The Lava Lounge Too, 23300 Ford Road; Royalty Nights Hookah Lounge, 7090 Garling Drive; and Wave Lounge, 24302 W. Warren Ave.
Abdallah asked if Cigar & Cigarette Shop was actually a lounge and not just a product shop because he wasn’t aware of it, in which Bazzi responded that it has a license.
Based on the Cigar & Cigarette Shop reviews on Google the business only sells products and does not operate as a hookah lounge.
Mayor Daniel Paletko informed the council that another hookah lounge is under construction at the intersection of Ford Road and Telegraph. The business already obtained a certificate of occupancy to build a hookah lounge after it began the process with the city last year before a 180-day moratorium was established.
According to the ordinance, any person wishing to obtain a smoking lounge business license exceeding the cap of seven may petition the city council for permission to do so.
No future smoking lounge is allowed to be located within 1,000 feet of any school, church or park, but this section of the new ordinance does not impact the existing lounges.
Miotke told the council that there were many problems with the ordinance and that he thought it would violate the Zoning Enabling Act. According to the state of Michigan, the act is one “to codify the laws regarding local units of government regulating the development and use of land; to provide for the adoption of zoning ordinances; to provide for the establishment in counties, townships, cities, and villages of zoning districts; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain officials; to provide for the assessment and collection of fees; to authorize the issuance of bonds and notes; to prescribe penalties and provide remedies; and to repeal acts and parts of acts.”
He suggested that the ordinance go to the Planning Commission for review because it has zoning and land use implications. The commission would give a recommendation and then the council would be able to adopt the ordinance.
As for regulations, hookah lounges must be closed between the hours of 2 to 8 a.m. on any given day and outdoor seating must be in compliance with city zoning as an acceptable use.
Abdallah said he had nine concerns relating to the ordinance, but that some had been answered.
“In order to vote or consider this, there should be an opportunity for people to open in other ZIP codes in Dearborn Heights instead of putting a cap,” he said. “Also the Ramadan hours as we talked about earlier in the study sessions — there should be an opportunity for some of these lounges to be able to open a little later during Ramadan hours.”
He also said an important aspect he wasn’t OK with was that the outside patio areas would have to close at midnight and that instead the hours should be similar to whatever lounges that are going to open.
Councilwoman Denise Malinowski-Maxwell said the ordinance reads that “outdoor seating shall be permitted provided it is in compliance with city zoning as an acceptable use.”
She said the council could look at an ordinance to cover all Ramadan activities for everybody across the board for that time period to have certain hours making things easier for everybody.
Abdallah responded by saying he’d rather see that adjustment now instead of in the future, that a change should be made to where there is no cap on closing time and economics should dictate when the businesses closes.
“The other thing we talked about, I don’t believe in capping these particular places of business at 2 a.m. since there is no liquor license involved with these,” he said. “If a particular business wants to open until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. and there’s people in there and no commotion or no problems with the Police Department, its their right. I don’t believe we should dictate as a government to say to some of these places, ‘You have to close by 2 a.m. and close the patio by midnight.’”
Malinowski-Maxwell informed Abdallah that the 2 a.m. business hour closing is already when the hookah lounges in the city close. She also said that if the council wanted to make any changes within the ordinance they would come back to do so.
During the meeting, Bazzi said other cities have had issues with hookah lounges and that the city council is trying to be proactive to not have issues in the near future.
One of those cities is Dearborn which put a cap on hookah lounges at 15 in 2015.
Attorney Amir Makled spoke before the motion passed and said he had concerns about the ordinance as it was written at the time of the meeting.
He informed the council that every year he goes before the Dearborn City Council to ask for extended hours each Ramadan, that Dearborn has recognized that isn’t an appropriate use of the ordinance and has reached out to him to adjust the ordinance.
Makled added that the Dr. Ron Davis Smoke Free Air Law of 2009 which prohibits smoking in food service businesses, workplaces and public places including restaurants, bars, hotels, shopping malls, areas should be mentioned in the drafted ordinance.
Blue Moon Hookah Lounge owner Salim Sabbagh also spoke during the public comment on agenda items before the smoking lounges ordinance was discussed and voted on.
“I spend like 17, 18 hours at the place, taking care of it, looking at my customers, looking at the students every day,” he said. “Every day I have 15 to 20 of them studying in the lounge. I don’t want people to think the hookah lounge is a bad place, it’s a great place.”
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])