SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Surfside Beach leaders may consider new zoning rules to limit where vape and CBD stores can do business.
“I think we really need to stay on this as a town, because it’s not good for us,” town council member Shawn Fallon said on Tuesday.
The planning commission will meet July 2, where they’re expected to begin talks about creating a definition of what would constitute a vape or CBD shop.
It’s also possible that such businesses in the future would have to operate along Sandy Lane, keeping them away from the well-traveled Highway 17 Business corridor that runs through town.
But even that idea met with concern from town council member Heny Kohlmann, who referenced Myrtle Beach’s Seaboard Avenue.
“I’d hate Sandy Lane to turn into Seaboard. It’s strip joints, vape shops and tattoo parlors. It’s not even a mixture of anything. You don’t have convenience stores, you don’t have restaurants,” he said. “I don’t want a place where in the shadows, you have these businesses. They’re going to bring crime.”
Heather Garrison, the town’s director of planning, building and zoning, said there’s nothing currently on the books clarifying what separates a shop that sells primarily vape or CBD products from a convenience store.
Planning commission vice-chairman Michael Pesce said members want more input as they work on the issue.
Last month, the Biden administration announced that the Justice Department is moving forward with plans to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III, putting it in the same category as Tylenol.
That could bolster efforts by state lawmakers to create a medical marijuana law — which would affect businesses locally.
Marijuana use remains barred under federal law, but 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized it for recreational use and other 14 for medicinal purposes.
“We didn’t know to write it to be forward looking,” Pesce said of a proposed zoning ordinance controlling the location of vape and CBD stores.
* * *
Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
