An Athens beauty supply shop’s request for permission to also sell vaping products has been denied
By: David Forster
Posted on:
Friday, April 17, 2026
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — A beauty supply store in the uptown Athens area will not be able to sell vaping products as well because it’s too close to a church.
That’s not the only reason. The store is also too close to another retailer that sells tobacco products.
The store opened in October as Glamor-us, at the southeast corner of East State Street and Stimson Avenue. It later changed its name to Exotic World Vape and Beauty.
Exotic World Vape and Beauty in Athens applied for a variance from zoning restrictions on vape shop locations but was denied. [David Forster | WOUB]But to sell vaping products it needed a variance from the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals. This is because two years ago the City Council passed a zoning ordinance restricting the location of vape and tobacco shops.
Among other things, the zoning code says these shops cannot be located within 500 feet of a church or another retailer selling these products.
Exotic World Vape and Beauty is 450 feet from the Central Avenue Methodist Church on Carpenter Street and 304 feet from Busy Day Market on Stimson, which sells tobacco products.
The store applied for a variance, the first time a business has sought one from this restriction. But no one showed up to argue in favor of the variance at the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting Tuesday. No one showed up to oppose it either.
The board went ahead with its hearing. In evaluating a variance request, board members work their way through a checklist of questions, and in this case, several of the checks were not in Exotic World’s favor.
Board members noted the zoning restriction is not ambiguous — the distance requirements are clear. So it was difficult to find a reason to grant an exception, especially without the applicant there to make their case.
The review did lead to a broader discussion about the zoning.
Board Chair Rob Delach noted that the distance restrictions as recommended by the Planning Commission did not include churches. That was added by the council.
“That makes this overly restrictive, especially in uptown,” Delach said. There are 10 shops uptown selling vape or tobacco products, he said. The distance restrictions do not apply to them because they were in business already when the council approved the zoning ordinance.
But only one of them is more than 500 feet from a church, Delach said. So if any of the others were to close at some point, another vape or tobacco shop could not take their place.
As this happens, he expects more variance requests to come before the board, Delach said.
Board member Ben Lachman argued it’s up to the Planning Commission or City Council to determine whether the zoning should be relaxed.
“I don’t think it’s our job to say whether that is overly restrictive or not,” he said.