Tempe City Council approved an ordinance Thursday to restrict such businesses as plasma donation centers and hookah lounges in an effort to protect the community from loitering and heavy traffic.
The restrictions will require certain new businesses, including tobacco shops, auto-title loan stores, rent-to-own operations and various types of employment agencies, to go through a public-hearing process before they can open.
The ordinance will address concerns brought forward by Tempe residents that these businesses can have negative effects on their neighborhoods.
Brian Schlemmer, a social work senior, said in a phone interview Tempe is too focused on attracting certain types of businesses to the city and ignores problems that face residents, such as homelessness and poverty.
"If they have issues with businesses like this attracting certain types of people, they should try to address the issue rather than trying to sweep the problem aside," Schlemmer said.
Schlemmer works with low-income people and the homeless through faith-based social work programs in Tempe and said many of these people donate plasma as an additional or primary source of income.
Plasma donation centers in Tempe are popular with transient populations and students because of the financial compensation, according to city documents.
Most plasma banks provide physicals before people can donate, Schlemmer said.
"It's the most thorough screening some of these folks get," he added.
There are two plasma donation centers in Tempe, both owned by the national company ZLB Plasma Services.
Darlene Justus, a Tempe resident who asked the city to look at the issue in October, thanked the council for addressing the issue.
The ordinance imposed a quarter-mile separation requirement between different auto loan stores. A similar ordinance will impose the same restrictions on payday loan and check-cashing businesses.
The new restrictions have received overwhelming support from community members, said Chris Anaradian, Tempe development services manager.
Anaradian said he did not receive any complaints about the new ordinances, nor were any concerns brought up at public meetings.
"Many people think we haven't done enough," he added.
Ahmed Shamsa, owner of A & A Smoke in Tempe, said the city is setting up unnecessary obstacles for new businesses.
Shamsa said he didn't think his business has any negative effects on the surrounding community.
A & A Smoke, which sells tobacco products wholesale, meets consumer needs in the area, he said.
"I sell brands that are not in grocery and other places," Shamsa said. "No one minds that I am here."
Reach the reporter at emilia.arnold@asu.edu.
