New CBD, vape shop at Lee Branch gets OK for tobacco sales but still has opposition

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The Hoover City Council on Monday night gave its approval for tobacco sales at a new CBD, smoke and vape shop in The Village at Lee Branch off U.S. 280, but the real estate management company for the shopping center says it has a problem with the store.

Scott Laslo, a representative for Crawford Square Real Estate Advisors, told the City Council the new store, H.H. Smoke Shop, is violating the shopping center’s covenants and restrictions with at least one of its uses and said the management company intends to take legal action if the shop doesn’t remedy the violation by mid-January.

Laslo said the shop is doing something that was never brought to the attention of the management company for approval and said the management company does not intend to give approval. In an interview after the council meeting, he declined to say exactly what the CBD shop is doing that violates restrictions.

Hoover City Attorney Philip Corley said the covenants and restrictions are a private matter between the two private companies and separate from the issue that was before the council. The only issue before the council was whether H.H. Smoke Shop should be allowed to sell tobacco.

Henry Dailey, a Greystone resident who owns the shop, told the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission last month that he already has a business license to sell CBD (cannabidiol) products legally in the city of Hoover and that the only reason he was coming to the city was because tobacco sales require approval from the city as a “conditional use.”

When the zoning board heard the matter, Councilwoman and zoning board member Khristi Driver and zoning board Chairman Mike Wood both asked Dailey if he would be willing to change the name of his store from Hemp House Smoke Shop & Vape, Dailey agreed to go with the name H&H Smoke Shop & Vape instead.

Driver noted then that Hoover officials last year decided they did not want to become a dispensary city for medical marijuana. Dailey responded then that there already were 15 other businesses selling CBD products in Hoover, including the Walgreens and Publix stores at The Village at Lee Branch. “We’re not doing anything different than any other place is in the area,” Dailey said.

The CBD products he will be selling come from hemp, and any product that may contain THC (tetrohydrocannbionol — the major psychoactive component in cannabis) will be under the legal prescribed limit of .3%, Dailey said.

The H.H. Smoke Shop opened for business about three weeks ago without any tobacco products, said Dailey’s son, who also is named Henry Dailey.

The shop is at 120 Doug Baker Blvd., Suite 110, which is in an outparcel building in The Village at Lee Branch. It is one of two businesses in the building, the other being Mt. Fuji Japanese Sushi Steakhouse. The H.H. Smoke Shop location formerly was home to a dentist office, the elder Dailey said.

The father said he had never owned a business of this type. However, the son on Tuesday said he (not his father) has been in this business about 10 years, formerly working at another CBD store in the Bailey Brothers Shoppes on U.S. 280.

The son, who is the shop’s manager, said he wanted to run his own store and said the shop isn’t doing anything illegal or against the shopping center covenants and restrictions, which he described as “very vague.”

“My whole mission here is to only carry top-quality products,” he said.

The store carries a variety of cannabis products, all from American-grown hemp, and no synthetic substitutes, he said.

“I don’t want to be a head shop,” he said. “I don’t carry any glass pieces. I don’t carry any grinders [devices used to break down cannabis into smaller, more manageable pieces].

The son said he wants to work with shopping center managers to address any concerns they have.

 “I so badly want to be in their good favor,” he said. “I want to be as transparent and genuine from the get. … I don’t want to have anything that would cause any problems for the shopping center. I want to do things the right way.” At the same time, “you don’t want to be stepped on,” he said.

CBD is a compound found in marijuana but does not cause a “high,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The elder Dailey noted that CBD has a wide variety of uses, including helping with muscle soreness and helping dogs calm down.

In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:

  • Awarded three contracts to Alabama Turf Works for landscaping services. One would pay the company $60,556 to provide landscaping services for nine months at the Interchange for Interstate 65 and Interstate 459 and three interstate exits (I- 65 at U.S. 31, I-65 at Alford Avenue and I-459 at John Hawkins Parkway). A second would pay the company $50,168 to provide landscaping services for nine months at seven locations (Preserve Parkway and Sulphur Springs Road, U.S. 31 medians, Doug Baker Boulevard, Ross Bridge Parkway, the Chapel Lane extension, Galleria Boulevard and the area of Municipal Drive, Municipal Lane and Sierra Drive). A third would pay the company $35,663 for landscaping services for nine months at four locations (Hoover Public Library, Hoover Public Safety Center, Habersham entrance lots, and the area of Alford Avenue, Tyler Road, Valley Street and Oxmoor Heights Cemetery).
  • Extended an agreement for the National Computer Forensics Institute to use 40,000 square feet of space in the Hoover Public Safety Center for another 10 years, with the institute paying the city of Hoover $477,000 a year to cover utilities, maintenance and custodians.
  • Amended the fiscal 2024 budget to provide $3 million for the first year of prepaid rent for 30,000 square feet of space in an office building in the planned Riverwalk Village development.
  • Reappointed Foster Ware to the Hoover Industrial Development Board for a six-year term ending Oct. 31, 2029.
  • Reappointed Robbin Gregory, Regis Ramos and Damian Gilbert to the Hoover Downtown Redevelopment Authority for six-year terms ending Dec. 31, 2029.
  • Approved an agreement to allow the Alabama Department of Transportation to replace signs along Interstate 459.
  • Approved an agreement for the installation of a new traffic signal at the intersection of John Hawkins Parkway and ATI Parkway, with the city of Hoover paying 50% of the cost and the developer of nearby property paying the rest. It should take about two years to get the traffic signal ordered and installed, City Engineer Chris Reeves said.
  • Approved an agreement for the installation of a new traffic signal at the intersection of Alabama 119 and Tattersall Park Drive with the developer of Tattersall Park paying the full cost.
  • Approved an agreement with the First Responder Institute to bring the Firefighter Challenge Nationals back to Hoover for a second year in 2024. The city will need to put up about $45,000 to help sponsor and support the event, Events Director Kelly Peoples said.
  • Recognized two longtime employees who are retiring: zoning clerk Vanessa Bradstreet with 50 years of service and emergency communications supervisor Beth Stanley with 28 years of service, and honored city forester Colin Conner for 25 years of service.

See the full video of the Dec. 18 Hoover City Council meeting on The Hoover Channel YouTube page.