The controversy surrounding a recently approved hookah lounge in the Village of Great Neck is spurring legislative action by the village’s board, which introduced a possible moratorium on businesses that profit from on-site smoking at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said the bill is designed to give the village time to consider permanent regulations it could take to restrict smoking establishments.
“The thought is that we look into this further and consider a law that might ban that,” Kreitzman said.
The proposal is similar to a measure introduced in the Village of Great Neck Plaza last month and would not apply to the already approved hookah lounge.
“Unfortunately, if someone has already been given approval, they’ve been given approval,” Kreitzman said.
Kreitzman asked village Attorney Stephen Limmer to draft legislation to be considered at a future meeting.
The hookah lounge, which is to be located on property owned by Great Neck-based developer Mike Yeroush, has drawn criticism from residents concerned over the possible health effects of second-hand smoke.
A group of residents, led by tenants of the 1 Wooleys Lane apartment building that sits adjacent to the hookah lounge’s location at the intersection of Middle Neck and Picadilly roads, has started a group to oppose the project and distribute information about the health effects of smoking from a hookah – a Middle Eastern water pipe traditionally used to smoke-flavored tobacco.
Though the lounge will serve a smokable fruit substance rather than tobacco, in accordance with conditions set by during the Village of Great Neck’s permitting process, the business could still endanger public health, according to Charles Stein, one of the group’s organizers.
The village approved a conditional-use permit for the hookah lounge in July with several caveats, including requiring a re-permitting of planned outdoor seating in October 2014, a prohibition on noise emanating from the building and a requirement that the substance smoked be a tobacco-free fruit blend.
Some residents have called on the village to revoke the permit, but Kreitzman has pushed back on those requests, saying that though he was concerned about the potential health effects the village could not legally reopen the permit hearing.
“The hookah lounge falls within the definition of restaurant, which is a conditionally permitted use. That means it is permitted so long as the conditions set forth in the Village Code have been met,” wrote Kreitzman in a letter to the 1 Wooleys Lane group. “So long as those conditions are met, and they have been, the Board may only impose, and did impose, reasonable conditions consistent with the law. It may not deny the application.”
At an early August meeting, Kreitzman said he was sensitive to residents concerns and that the board would be responsive to complaints that the lounge was violating its permit, but emphasized that Limmer had told the board it had no legal recourse to revoke the permit or regulate the smoking of non-tobacco products.
Kreitzman suggested that advocates could lobby the state to regulate all smoke as it does tobacco smoke, but said that had the village tried to block the use it could have been subject to a legal challenge it would likely have lost.
