If you’ve ever walked past a vape shop next to a daycare or noticed a medical marijuana dispensary pop up beside a neighborhood library, you’re not alone in wondering how that’s even legal — and a proposed overhaul of New Orleans zoning rules would make sure it doesn’t happen in The Big Easy.
According to the City Planning Commission staff report, smoke shops, marijuana retailers, and other cannabis and tobacco sellers are currently lumped in with ordinary retail stores under city zoning law — meaning they can operate nearly anywhere a general retail store can. The proposed rules would carve out three distinct land use categories and attach real restrictions to each…