Sarasota commissioners OK ordinances banning smoking at city parks and beaches

The sight of cigarette butts and the smell of cigarette smoke could become things of the past on Lido Beach if a new city of Sarasota ordinance is successful as expected.

City commissioners gave initial approval on Tuesday to an ordinance that bans smoking on public beaches. They also OK’d an ordinance banning smoking in the city’s public parks. In both cases, there is an exception for unfiltered cigar smoking.

The two ordinances will need to be approved again at a future meeting for them to take effect.

The city is taking action now because the Florida Legislature passed a bill earlier this year giving local governments the authority to regulate smoking at their beaches. The law took effect on July 1.

Background: Local governments respond to new beach smoking law

And: Sarasota officials, Dr. Beach celebrate new law allowing local governments to ban beach smoking

Background

In 2003, a Florida law created smoke-free restaurants and workplaces. It also gave the state all authority to regulate smoking.

Even so, some local governments passed ordinances to control smoking on public beaches or parks in subsequent years. Sarasota County banned smoking on its beaches in 2007, and the city of Sarasota opted into the county’s ban. The city then prohibited smoking in public parks in 2011.

But, in 2012, a Sarasota County judge ruled that the city’s park ordinance was unenforceable, and that regulating smoking is a task left solely to the Legislature. That decision essentially invalidated local public smoking bans.

This year, the Legislature handed some power back to cities and counties. They are now able to ban all forms of smoking – except from unfiltered cigars – at public beaches and parks.

City Commission’s decision

On Tuesday, the City Commission unanimously approved ordinances prohibiting smoking at city beaches and parks. The only beach under the city’s control is Lido Beach.

Vice Mayor Kyle Battie expressed his disapproval of smoking at parks and at the beach.

“I was biking out there Saturday, and as I’m pulling up to the beach, I see two people, a husband and a wife, get out of their car, and they’re walking on the beach with cigarettes in their hand,” he said. “Me myself, I just think it’s disgusting, you know.”

The commissioners also expressed interest in making the parking lots at city parks designated smoking areas. They voted unanimously to direct the city attorney and city manager to prepare an ordinance to that effect.

Commissioner Hagen Brody said he can see situations where a grandparent who smokes wants to go with their grandchild to the park.

“I really don’t like the idea of people smoking around playgrounds or where kids are going to be congregating,” he said, but he also said he sympathizes with someone who has been smoking for 60 years and isn’t going to quit. He supports the idea of allowing smoking in the parking areas for parks.

An already existing city ordinance permits smoking at the parking lots at Lido Beach.

Impact

Charles Denault, chairman of the Tobacco Free Partnership for Sarasota County, spoke to the city commissioners via Zoom and shared some of the ways that second-hand smoke can be harmful to individuals. Breathing the smoke can have immediate adverse effects on people’s blood, increasing their risk of having a heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

“In conclusion, for greater enjoyment of our beaches and parks, and for the welfare of the local environment and the health of our residents and visitors, the Tobacco Free Partnership of Sarasota strongly recommends passage of both these ordinances to ban cigarettes from our parks and beaches,” Denault said ahead of the vote.

Cigarette butts also are also harmful to the coastal environment.

“Made of tightly packed plastic fibers, the butts erode into smaller bits and accumulate in fish and other organisms,” Jon Paul “J.P.” Brooker of the Ocean Conservancy said in a statement this June. “This hurts our seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals, and it also hurts human health when people consume sick fish.”

Anne Snabes covers city and county government for the Herald-Tribune. You can contact her at asnabes@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota commissioners approve ordinances banning smoking at parks, beaches