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FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A national justice has denied a nonprofit’s petition to halt the metropolis of Fresno from enforcing fume store regulations.
While the metropolis whitethorn person won the battle, though, the warfare is acold from over.
“They filed a question for a preliminary injunction, which the justice besides denied connected Friday,” Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said.
The California Smoke Shops Association (CSSA), a nonprofit made up of 28 fume store owners, is suing the metropolis implicit its caller fume store ordinance.
The ordinance limits the fig of fume shops per territory and requires businesses to person conditional usage permits.
“What we've seen from fume shops is that they're intentionally targeting the unhoused, the unemployed, and the transgression element, and their products show that,” District 3 City Councilman Miguel Arias said.
The proceedings is not until January 2027. So, CSSA filed for a preliminary injunction to halt the metropolis from enforcing its ordinance until the extremity of the trial.
However, the justice decided the enforcement was successful the public’s champion involvement and denied CSSA’s petition Fon riday.
This is the 2nd clip the justice has sided with the metropolis successful this case.
CSSA filed a restraining bid against the city this summer, but that was also denied.
Arias says they privation to bounds the fig of fume shops per territory due to the fact that of the antagonistic interaction they person connected their surroundings.
“They're selling flavored baccy to minors. They're selling cannabis illegally. The immense majority, similar 95% of them, don’t adjacent person a concern licence oregon are not paying taxes successful the city. And they're starring the magnitude of constabulary calls successful the area,” Arias said.
However, successful the caller preliminary injunction filing, CSSA claimed the regulations were unfair due to the fact that they don’t besides use to baccy shops.
“We person not seen immoderate accrued transgression astir places that person cigars, astir Save Mart oregon Costco – different places that merchantability tobacco, and truthful we've truly seen the transgression concentrated successful areas astir the fume shops,” Janz said.
Arias says CSSA offered the metropolis a colony woody “where the existing businesses who person nary rules would beryllium exempt from immoderate aboriginal rules, and lone the rules would use to aboriginal operators, arsenic good arsenic they would similar to treble oregon triple successful the magnitude of fume shops successful the confederate portion of the city.”
He says much fume shops successful southbound Fresno would deteriorate that country of the city.
They did not instrumentality the deal.
Reporters reached retired to aggregate fume shops for this story, but did not perceive back. CSSA’s lawyer did not respond either.
