BATON ROUGE - District 3 Metro Council member Rowdy Gaudet wants to keep vape stores away from K-12 schools, public parks, and places of worship.

The plan is in its early stages, but he says they are comparing distances with other communities to see what is best for the city parish and details about what businesses will have to comply have not been determined. 

"Some other communities are 500 feet from a K-12 school, place of worship or a public park. Some are up to 1000 feet. That for me is a part of the deliberation process. It's a challenge to really define these types of businesses. Vape products for instance can be sold at gas stations, but a gas station's primary revenue source is not the vape itself," he said.

Ultimately, the decision will be up to the Metro Council on if the ordinance passes. If it does, Gaudet says stores who are already in proximity with a K-12 school, public park or place of worship will be able keep selling in the area.

"Existing businesses essentially are grandfathered in. If they're open and operating and they're properly permitted, they can continue operating under that permit. This will be looking forward for how we define and how we treat where these businesses can locate," he said. 

Gaudet says worried parents came to him about their children getting access to vapes from a shop near their school. He says these complaints led him to take action.

"Their concern to me was, 'Is there anything you could do on a local level to prevent easy access from happening?', and that's what I want to explore," he said.

There are a couple of residents who say the distance requirement won't accomplish Gaudet's goals. 

"It's not going to affect the kids or teenagers or anything like that," Tanya Vessel said.

"If their main goal is to keep kids from getting vapes and tobacco, I don't think that's the way to go about it," Noah Achord said.

Gaudet says there is no timeline on when the plan will be ready to be presented to the council.