WINDSOR SMOKE SHOP IGNITES FUROR

Council Imposes Moratorium on Businesses It Deems Undesirable Near Downtown

Windsor has decided to "just say no" for the time being to any new
smoke shops that sell drug paraphernalia. The Smoke Shop,
which opened in early September, sells fancy bongs and pipes used to
smoke marijuana. But some critics say the smaller glass pipes in the
store are also used to smoke methamphetamine.

Alarmed by a smoke shop, or "head shop," that recently opened in a
prominent spot in Town Green Village, the Town Council voted
unanimously Wednesday to impose an immediate 45-day moratorium on any
new ones, as well as a variety of other types of businesses.

Those include check-cashing stores, pawn shops, tattoo parlors and
bail bonds businesses, which Windsor officials see as potentially
damaging to the family-friendly atmosphere they want to encourage.

The intent is to allow Windsor to develop zoning regulations and
conditions on those businesses, prohibit them or keep them out of
certain areas like the new downtown.

The moratorium could be extended another 22 months while Windsor
crafts the zoning regulations.

"It's clearly not a desirable business in that area," Councilman Warin
Parker said of the smoke shop that opened next to Patterson's Pub.

He noted that it's also near a child-care center and "a quarter-mile
from the high school."

"Get rid of the smoke shop any way you can," resident Christopher
Delacruz told the council. "Buy up the lease. I see kids walk by there
all the time. It's degrading the whole town."

His comments reflected the sentiments of most of the three dozen
people who showed up for Wednesday's council meeting at Town Hall.

By the end of the night, council members said they were willing to
explore spending redevelopment money to buy out the smoke shop lease,
which is a one-year minimum.

Council members also want to revisit the idea of requiring business
licenses in town, something that they have rejected in the past
because it is viewed by critics as simply another tax.

Parker said that a business license would provide more teeth, unlike
the current voluntary business registration process.

But a few others said Windsor was being too heavy handed by lumping a
half dozen types of businesses into the moratorium.

"The council needs to let Windsor find its own identity. If a business
doesn't mesh with the people who live in Windsor, it will fail," said
Pamela Pizzimenti, a Windsor mother of four children.

She said the town's moratorium is too sweeping, and officials are
trying to pass moral judgement by, for example, saying that a family
that has tattoos is undesirable.

The Smoke Shop, which opened in early September, sells fancy bongs and
pipes used to smoke marijuana. But some critics say the smaller glass
pipes in the store are also used to smoke methamphetamine.

The store owners, brothers Sam and Basam Khouri, have said they are
following the law and that all items in the store are for tobacco use.
They did not attend the meeting.

There are at least a half dozen similar stores in Santa Rosa, and
while they have existed for decades around the state, the smoke shop
touched a nerve in Windsor.

"This caught us off guard," Councilwoman Robin Goble
said.

The store is on a prominent corner of Windsor Road. The store's
inventory of pipes and hookahs was still in relatively plain view this
week through the open door and windows, despite some window blinds.

While the store prohibits anyone under 18 from entering, opponents of
the store say the drug merchandise can be seen by the many students
strolling to and from nearby Windsor High School.

After Wednesday night's meeting, some opponents said they went by the
smoke shop and claimed to have spotted at least four underage kids
inside the store, their skateboards outside.

Virtually all the calls and scores of e-mails to the town have been
against the smoke shop, expressing, disapproval, even shock and
outrage that the business was allowed to open in such a visible spot.

In a letter to the local newspaper, Windsor resident Brad Sherwood
said the location was an embarrassment to the residents and business
community.

The motto on a billboard promoting the Town Green reads
"Live.Work.Play." It might as well state, "Smoke Green on the Town
Green," Sherwood said.

Opponents say the store invites drug users and drug dealers from
neighboring towns to Windsor, creating a cycle of criminal activity.