Millbrook extends moratorium on gas stations and vape shops
Millbrook kept blocking new gas stations and vape shops as officials continued reviewing zoning rules, extending a pause that already covered convenience stores and package stores.
Millbrook extended its moratorium on new gas stations and vape shops, keeping in place a citywide block on new construction and business licenses for those uses while officials continue to weigh land-use rules and development standards. The move preserves a restriction first approved in May 2025, when the Millbrook City Council set the original pause to run through May 9, 2026.
The city’s Planning and Zoning Department handles long-range development planning, zoning, subdivision approval and other land-development steps, which places the issue squarely in the city’s permitting and land-use process. Under the moratorium, Millbrook is still stopping new construction and business licenses for gas stations, convenience stores, vape shops and package stores while the council and staff review how those businesses fit into future development standards.
The earlier action passed unanimously, and council member Al Kelley said he had looked at similar steps taken in Prattville and Pike Road before backing the measure. That put Millbrook in line with a broader River Region pattern of cities using temporary moratoriums to slow down certain kinds of development while they reassess how permits are handled.
Montgomery adopted a separate 90-day moratorium on June 3, 2025, covering new permits for convenience stores, gas stations, vape shops and package stores. Montgomery officials tied that move to concern about youth access to vaping products, showing that neighboring cities have been responding to different but overlapping worries about the spread of these businesses.
For Millbrook, the latest extension means the pause remains in force beyond the first deadline the council set last year. Residents and business owners watching the issue now face a longer wait while the city sorts through the zoning questions behind the moratorium and decides what standards, if any, should govern future applications for these uses.
Millbrook City Council meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month in the courtroom of the Millbrook Police and Municipal Court Building at 3900 Grandview Road, and the city clerk maintains the ordinances and meeting minutes that document the action.
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