Hookah trend collides with smoking ordinance

By CHRISTIANA NELSON December 19, 2005

The city’s no-smoking ordinance is clashing with a local business catering to the latest trend among teens.

Hookah bars are popping up in major U.S. cities directed at the 18- to 21-year-old set as a place to gather and smoke.
Because of the city’s smoking, ordinance public hookah bars are illegal in Fort Collins — and the city is getting ready to defend that stance.

A hookah is a water pipe filled with fruit-flavored tobacco that originated in the Middle East and recently has gained popularity in the United States.

During the past four years, 200 to 300 hookah bars have opened across the nation, including four in Denver, according to tobacco industry estimates.

Now the trend is trying to hit Fort Collins.

On Dec. 2 a small shop that sells hookahs opened on the first floor of the Alley Cat coffee shop, 120½ W. Laurel St. The shop, dubbed Algiers, offers retail hookahs as well as a place for people to sit down and smoke.

Officials from the city’s Neighborhood Services code enforcement have already visited the business to warn that it is violating the no-smoking ordinance, adopted by voters two years ago, which restricts smoking in public places.

Algiers owners Charles Klamm and Mark Williams, who is also the proprietor of Alley Cat, claim the shop is a retail tobacco outlet, which complies with Fort Collins law in that a tobacco-smoking establishment must generate at least 75 percent of its revenue from the sale of tobacco products.

The city sees it differently.

“We’re not viewing them as a retail tobacco outlet; we see them as a private club and they need a license to operate,” said Felix Lee, neighborhood and building services director. “We don’t believe their retail sales of tobacco products meet the requirement.”

Algiers serves complementary tea in order to keep its sales purely tobacco related; however, since Algiers has some connection to the Alley Cat, the coffee shop’s food and beverage sales can be included in Algiers’ sales, Lee said. A lack of ventilation in Algiers also is a concern for city officials.

Since the city does not view Algiers as a retail tobacco establishment, it must be a licensed private club in order to allow smoking.

If Algiers continues to allow hookahs it could be cited for operating without a license — a criminal offense that carries fines up to $1,000 a day for every day of violation, as well as potential jail time for the operator.

In order to be considered a private club, an establishment must collect substantial annual dues, place restrictions on use, and provide revenue information to the city.

Still, hookah users and those associated with Algiers contend Fort Collins is ready for hookah businesses and the city should not push it away.

“One of the most positive things about this is there’s a very small market for places to go for people between the ages of 18 and 21 — this is a place they can go that’s open late,” said Neal Tepaske, who works at the Alley Cat and at Algiers.'

About 60 customers frequent Algiers to smoke hookah and another 50 people purchase retail each night. The small locale has a Middle Eastern-feel and is decorated with several colored lights and tables surrounded by blankets and pillows.

“For me, the hookah bar is not about the hookah,” said Daryl Ham, 36, of Fort Collins. “Places like this provide the opportunity to come together. It’s less about the hookah and more about the people. It’s just a way to be a part of the community and what’s going on.”

It costs $7 a person to smoke hookah at Algiers, with the tobacco lasting about an hour. Hookah retail products range from $33 for a small hookah to $120 for a large four-hose hookah.

Most Algiers customers do not smoke cigarettes, but hookah has made its way from the coast to Fort Collins as more of a social release and interest already has grown in the area, Williams said.
Ham has smoked hookah several times and enjoys the social aspect of the new Fort Collins spot.

“I’m a very casual smoker, and the good thing about hookah is it is very, very mild, but you get the fruit flavor,” he said.

As the city is prepared to issue Algiers a citation for violating the smoking ordinance and ventilation regulations, Algiers maintains it is “in discussion with the city about what it means to be a retail outlet,” Williams said.

If Algiers reclassifies itself as a private club or a membership club, it would likely not need to relocate because both classifications are allowed in commercial zones, said Peter Barnes, zoning administrator.

Still, Klamm feels the benefits of the store outweigh the city’s protests.

“It’s a social activity in a very disconnected world,” he said. “It’s fostering a lot of community with a lot of different people.”