OCALA, FL (352today.com) – For business owners who want to set up shop in Marion County to sell vapes, kratom, or smoke-shop stock next to a school, church, or park: not so fast.

On Monday evening, Marion County Commissioners unanimously adopted new zoning rules that keep standalone smoke, vape, and kratom shops away from schools, daycares, churches, and public parks. The City of Ocala recently expressed support for these new zoning rules.

The ordinance creates Section 4.3.30 of the Land Development Code for unincorporated Marion County. New shops whose primary use is the on-premises sale or consumption of tobacco, tobacco products, tobacco paraphernalia, e-cigarettes, vape products, kratom or kratom products cannot locate within 1,500 feet of a school, licensed daycare center, church or place of worship, or public park, or within 2,500 feet of another smoke shop.

Grocery stores, convenience stores and similar retailers stay exempt if those listed products are only incidental to their principal business. Shops already open on the effective date that miss the new distances become pre-existing nonconforming uses.

Marion County Growth Services Deputy Director Kenneth Weyrauch said commissioners had already directed staff on Aug. 26 to add e-cigarettes, kratom, and kratom products. He asked for one more change in the opening line: “and” to “or.”

“We would like to change that to ‘or’ so it says on-premises sale or consumption of tobacco,” Weyrauch said. “Just so there’s clarity that they don’t have to do both if they do either or.”

Marion County Commissioner for District 3, Matt McClain, said that was not enough. He wanted to know why “vape shops” had been struck from the title, and whether “e-cigarette” would cover every device the board meant to catch.

“I’m a little bit concerned. Why did we strike vape shops, and are e-cigarettes going to encompass what we’re trying to do as far as capturing all of the vape products that are out there?” McClain said. “I’m just concerned that the e-cigarettes aren’t going to capture everything that we’re trying to capture, and then why did we remove vape shops?”

Chief Assistant County Attorney Dana Olesky said the county’s existing tobacco code already folds “vape” into its definition of e-cigarette, which is why staff had used one word. State law, she said, now draws a sharper line.

“The statute does distinguish very distinctly between a vape, a vapor-generating electronic device,” Olesky said. “I do think we should clarify that it includes an e-cigarette and then vape as defined under Florida Statutes 386.203.”

Olesky said she also plans to bring the county’s tobacco ordinance back for cleanup, including language that still says 18 instead of 21. “But to your point, it should also include vape as well as the e-cigarette, so we’ll make that amendment,” she said.

McClain then asked to put “vape” back in the section title.

Weyrauch agreed to title the section “Smoke Shops and Vape Shops” and to add the vape language to subsections A and G.

“That makes me a lot more comfortable that we’re going to capture what we’re trying to do with that,” McClain said.

County Attorney Matthew Minter asked for three more changes before a vote. He wanted kratom and kratom products tied to Florida law: “as defined in Section 500.92, Florida Statutes.”

Minter also said the convenience-store exemption was too loose. As drafted, it carved out stores that sell “products incidental to its principal business,” which, he said, describes almost every retailer. Weyrauch said the point was to leave grocery and convenience stores alone when tobacco, vape or kratom is not the main use. Minter asked staff to say that directly: Those stores are exempt only when they sell the listed products incidental to their principal business.


He also flagged the word “vicinity” in subsection F, which the code never defined. Weyrauch said staff meant the 1,500-foot buffer. Minter told him to drop “vicinity” and point back to the distances in paragraph A. Weyrauch agreed.

The only public speaker was David Tillman. Tillman said the grocery-store exemption made sense. The convenience-store exemption did not.

“Some convenience stores are really, they carry a lot of products that are just convenience,” Tillman said. “Then there’s some that, you know, basically carry just products of hedonism altogether.”

“I still think that there needs to be some type of regulation on the distribution of this type of product, whether it’s coming out of a convenience store and it’s just convenient that they carry all of these things plus alcohol plus regular cigarettes. They carry all the same things almost that some of the smoke shops do,” Tillman said.

“To me, some of them aren’t the best places to have in your community, and some of them are,” he said. “Some of them are really truly there for convenience, but some sell just anything they can get their hands on, and I don’t think it’s a great thing.”

Commissioners left the convenience-store exemption in place. Outgoing Commissioner Chair, Carl Zalak III, thanked Tillman and said a separate convenience-store definition would be hard to write without sliding into building size.

“I don’t think we can get a great definition for just convenience stores by themselves, and it was going to be too difficult,” Zalak said. “Maybe it’s something we can work on in the future, if it becomes an issue.”

As amended on September 14, 2026, the ordinance:

  • Covers sale or consumption as a primary use.
  • Is titled smoke shops and vape shops.
  • Includes e-cigarettes and vapes under Florida Statute 386.203, and kratom under Florida Statute 500.92.
  • Exempts grocery and convenience stores only when they sell the listed products incidental to their principal business.
  • Measures distance in a straight line from the shop’s nearest building line to the nearest property line of the protected use, including across city or county lines if the shop is in unincorporated Marion County.
  • Allows a Special Use Permit if the buffers cannot be met, with notice to schools, licensed daycares, churches, and public parks within those distances.

The rule is not a ban on tobacco, vapes, or kratom. It applies only in unincorporated Marion County.