Henrico Planning Commission recommends location restrictions for vaping shops, horse racing machines

The Henrico Planning Commission last week endorsed proposals to incorporate into the county's zoning code regulations restricting the location of vaping shops and historical horse racing machines. The proposals will proceed to the Henrico Board of Supervisors for a final decision.

Vaping shop regulations were developed after several shops were built near schools. They would define a vaping shop as a business that dedicates 15% or more of its display space to e-cigarettes and related items and would prohibit them from locating within 2,000 feet of a school or another shop. A vaping shop also would need to apply to the Henrico Planning Commission for a provisional use permit before being allowed to open – even at an acceptable location. Tuckahoe Commissioner Brian Winterhoff requested that vaping shops also be barred from locating within 2,000 feet of a park or playground.

“The purpose,” explained Henrico Planning Department staffer Ben Blankinship, “is not to prevent vaping or to restrict the sale of vaping supplies. It’s simply to regulate vaping shops to keep them away from school kids if we can.”

These ordinances are based on those recently adopted by Chesterfield County. Blankinship said that Henrico officials chose not to include Chesterfield’s additional definition of a vaping shop as one where 15% of sales are dedicated to e-cigarettes because the Henrico Finance department can’t track that information.

“If the business wants to offer that information [great], but if they don’t, there’s no other way we can get," he said.

With regards to historical horse racing, Blankinship explained that the commonwealth recently legalized these machines in locales that allow off-track betting, which Henrico approved via referendum. This means the county now needs to regulate zoning for both kinds of gambling.

Historical horse racing machines would be barred within 2,000 feet of a school, park, playground, religious institution, or any other gambling-related use. Again, use of these machines would require a separate approval.

“What’s the difference between this and a slot machine? This is regulated by the Virginia Racing Commission,” said Blankinship.

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At its June 13 meeting, the commission also endorsed two proposals to expand townhome developments: one in the Three Chopt District at the intersection of Pouncey Tract Road (Route 271) and Liesfeld Farm Drive; and one in the Fairfield District at the intersection of Woodman Road and Winfrey Road.

The Three Chopt proposal would expand the Bacova subdivision by up to 32 homes. Planning Department staffers previously had indicated concern about the size of the landscape buffers along this addition, but Three Chopt Commissioner Bob Shippee said they could be improved before the final approval.

A neighbor spoke with concerns about the loss of open space across the street from a school and the distance between these new homes and existing homes that will face them but also thanked the developer for adjusting the design in response to feedback. The developer’s representative, Andy Condlin, responded that the overall subdivision is 43% open space before the expansion.

Meanwhile, the Fairfield proposal would expand the River Mill subdivision by up to 60 townhomes. All internal streets will have sidewalks and area residents will be able to take advantage of the Fall Line trail to cross Woodman.