Plan to ban smoking at Rock Hill city parks fails

Smokers can breathe a sigh of relief. A measure that would have restricted their ability to light up in Rock Hill city parks failed Monday after the City Council deadlocked on whether to move forward with the idea.

After discussing whether and how to best regulate smoking in the city’s 21 parks and recreation centers, council members split 3-3 on having staff draw up alternate proposals for consideration.

Without a majority in favor of advancing with the proposal, there will be no change to city policy, leaving smokers free to take a puff while enjoying the outdoors.

Mayor Doug Echols voted with Kathy Pender and Jim Reno in favor of hearing the staff proposals, including options that wouldn’t have covered all areas of certain parks or that would have allowed smokers to remain in designated spots.

“We want to have a healthy environment for all ages,” Echols said. “Those who choose to smoke can do so outside of city parks.”

But council members John Black, Kevin Sutton and Ann Williamson voted against the measure, arguing any limits on smoking in parks would be too restrictive.

“I hate smoking, and I don’t go anywhere smoking is going on,” Sutton said. “But in a park, there are areas you can go off to have a smoke.”

Sutton argued police shouldn’t be expected to patrol trails in search of smokers, and said the measure would put too much of a burden on visitors to the Giordana Velodrome and the Novant Health BMX Supercross Track.

“A visitor to a BMX event would have to walk a mile to smoke a cigarette” under the proposal, he said.

Councilwoman Sandra Oborokumo was not present Monday, depriving council of a potentially decisive vote.

The proposal to ban cigarettes in all city parks was originally recommended by the parks and recreation commission in a presentation to the council last month. Commission member Bev Carroll said members were concerned about the health effects of secondhand smoke and worried that discarded cigarettes could pose a fire hazard in wooded areas.

After the vote, Carroll said she was disappointed, especially because cities as varied as Charlotte and Clover have already enacted smoking bans in parks. She said enforcement of the ordinance was not a concern.

“We already have a smoking ordinance that bans smoking within restaurant entryways and sidewalks, and that promotes itself,” Carroll said. “Often people just have to say, ‘We have a city ordinance.’”

The parks and recreation commission recommended against placing any designated smoking areas in parks, citing fears that smokers wouldn’t stay in the designated area, and that an exception would weaken enforcement of the ban.

Monday’s vote may not be the end of the issue. Despite council members declining to hear proposals, Carroll said many had asked her individually to send them information on the proposed ban.

Echols said afterward the measure is likely to come back to the council if a member asks to discuss it again, and Carroll said her commission will make other proposals on the subject.

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Plan to ban smoking at Rock Hill city parks fails."