Over the past several months, several individuals have approached Nicholas Brown – who serves as Ward 5 Councilman on Hattiesburg City Council – about the prospect of opening a hookah bar within the city limits.
However, upon research into that measure, Brown discovered that Ordinance 3265 – which deals with cigar bars in the city – did not specifically address the matter of hookah bars, which has led him to ask fellow council members and the Hattiesburg Planning Commission to address that ordinance to see what can be done to look into the possibility of opening such an establishment.
“I want planning to kind of look at it, and get their opinion on how to move forward with it,” Brown said at the council’s February 5 work session. “I think whatever the best way that we could go about making it work would be good.
“I just wanted to open the dialogue on it, to see what (other council members) thought about it also.”
Hookahs – sometimes called water pipes – are devices used to heat, vaporize and smoke tobacco or other items. The smoke is passed through a water basin before being inhaled by the user. Hookah bars are establishments in which patrons can share a communal hookah or smoke by themselves.
Brown said with hookahs and hookah bars becoming popular throughout the country and world, he believes the City of Hattiesburg should put something on the books to allow a similar measure in the city.
“Hookah usage is legal, and we have a market for it here in Hattiesburg,” he said. “We have individuals who are willing to invest in the market by establishing hookah bars/lounges, which will bring extra tax revenue into the city and something new for people to do.
“In doing research, I found that many surrounding areas have hookah bars/lounges … (in Biloxi, Jackson, Ocean Springs, Jackson, Bay St. Louis and Tunica). I’m not promoting hookah usage, but I am promoting the city and the planning department to make every effort to ensure we are working to make the answer ‘yes’ when an individual is working to establish a business within the city limits of Hattiesburg, which we’re working to make the premier city of Mississippi and the Gulf South.”
Ordinance 3265, which was adopted in January 2007 and amended in November 2019, establishes rules for smoking indoors in certain establishments, which was previously not allowed within city limits. Under that ordinance, venues – such as a since-closed cigar bar on Walnut Street – were allowed to operate in the city.
Brown said, however, that ordinance left no mentions of establishments such as hookah bars.
“We have to make sure that we are not making decisions to make things work for certain people or groups (and not others),” he said. “Furthermore, my question for the planning department is, in cases where there’s no policy or ordinance in place that says you can’t (do this), what makes us say you can’t?”
Ward 4 Councilman Dave Ware said he would like to see city officials consult with the Mississippi Tobacco-Free Coalition to make sure that allowing a hookah bar would not endanger Hattiesburg’s designation as a Certified Tobacco-Free Community.
“I think as we’re going forward, that would be something very interesting to me,” he said. “I remember as a new council member in 2006, we passed the legislation to make this a smoke-free city, so I don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that.
“So I would ask the administration to reach out and ask about that.”
Ward 2 Councilwoman Deborah Delgado said she would not be in favor of the measure.
“For us to say the (previous) approval of a cigar bar didn’t alter our status as a smoke-free city is ludicrous,” she said. “Expanding it to hookah smoking or consumption would do even more damage to our status, even though (applicants) are probably looking at the language of the ordinance to say that it’s not violated.”
Council members are expected to revisit the issue in the near future after they garner more information on the matter.
