The Roswell City Council has approved on first reading an amendment to its alcoholic beverage code to create a new category, “cigar lounges,” and regulate what they can sell.
“This is a stricter version of the cigar lounge ordinance from the city of Alpharetta,” staff said in a report to the council.
According to the measure, a cigar lounge would derive more than 51% of total gross sales from hand-made cigars and 70%, from hand-made cigars and other cigar-related products. Such businesses could not sell vape products; cigarettes; unrolled tobacco; hookah products; or machine-rolled tobacco products.
A cigar lounge would be eligible for a consumption-on-the-premises alcohol license. It would be limited to a maximum capacity of 40 persons and not be allowed within 100 yards of another cigar lounge, among other requirements.
Council members added provisions requiring the hours of operation to be the same as liquor stores, and barring cigar lounges next to suburban residential zoning. The measure returns to the council for a second reading March 9.
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