Summerville, S.C. - Local candidate for Summerville Mayor Dickie Miler spoke last month against a proposal to allow a vape shop to rent from a local property owner. He appeared at a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting to make his case that the vape shop wasn't a fit for Summerville. We covered the story last month here. The appeal was made by neighboring Jana Riley of the Public Works Art Center.
At the January BZA meeting the board didn't take action on the proposed vape shop, and decided to defer the decision until the February meeting. This week the BZA had their February, and the proposed vape shop decision was not on the agenda. Instead the only items on the BZA's agenda were a variance for Mayor Waring's daughter's new house, and election of new officers.
We reached out to Town Councilman Terry Jenkins to discover why the vape shop decision wasn't included in the agenda despite being tabled for the February meeting. He reached out to the Town's Director of Planning Jessi Shuler who confirmed that because there was a child care center within 1000ft UDO rules did not allow the vape shop decision to go back to the BZA.
The Town gave no public update that they were going to quash a small business owner's application based on a politically motivated appeal. The Town Zoning Administrator has already deemed the parcel of land to have met the requirements in a public statement to the Summerville Journal Scene last month so the decision has been met with surprise.
Note there is already a vape shop in Downtown Summerville and the building in question had previously been a liquor store.
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