Item C: Standards for Outdoor Smoking Areas

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RELATED CITY POLICIES The council has adopted goals for sustainable community development and a healthy natural and built environment. Allowing outdoor smoking areas at public places and places of employment raises several policy questions: Where may outdoor smoking areas be located? The City Code and administrative rule do not specify which businesses may establish outdoor smoking areas. In the May work session, several councilors expressed support for restricting smoking areas to food- and beverage-service establishments, with additional suggestions that cigarette retailers and bingo parlors also be allowed to set up outdoor smoking areas. The Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act adopted by the Oregon Legislature in 2001, exempts bars, taverns, cocktail lounges and bingo parlors from the smoking ban. The draft ordinance proposes that outdoor smoking areas only be allowed at bars, taverns and restaurants. The draft ordinance also proposes that smoking in outdoor smoking areas not be allowed within 10 feet of building entrances, windows and other openings. What types of walls, coverings, screens and enclosures are acceptable? The City’s administrative rule allows outdoor smoking areas in which at least 25 percent of the wall surfaces are open to outside ventilation and which are at least 10 feet from building entrances. The result is a variety of settings including open patios, covered outdoor areas and partially enclosed smoking rooms that are separate from other portions of the business. During the council’s May work session, some expressed support for more restrictive standards – requiring a range of 50 to 100 percent of wall surfaces to be open to the outside air. Regulations in some central Ohio jurisdictions, including Upper Arlington, allow smoking in public places only on outdoor patios. These are defined as areas at least 10 feet from building openings that, if covered by a roof, have no more than two walls or side coverings. Such patios without a roof may have all sides enclosed. The draft ordinance proposes that outdoor smoking areas be enclosed by no more than 50 percent of walls or side coverings, if a roof is provided, and does not restrict the side enclosures if there is no roof. The ordinance includes a percentage, rather than number of walls, because of the wide variety of outdoor smoking areas that have been and may yet be established. Should new standards apply to existing outdoor smoking areas or should they be granted legal, nonconforming status? Whether to allow existing outdoor smoking areas to stay the same or force them to comply with new standards is a tough issue. Nonconforming uses and structures pose challenges to orderly development, and to code administration and enforcement. An argument favoring legal, nonconforming status for existing outdoor smoking areas is that owners “played by the rules” and should not be penalized because standards change. Arguments against are that existing outdoor smoking areas would possess a perceived advantage that would not be available to new outdoor smoking areas, and that their employees and patrons could not enjoy the health benefits of new, stricter standards. During the May 23 work session, the Mayor and City Council did not reach consensus on whether to grant legal, nonconforming status to existing outdoor smoking areas. L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050912\S050912C.doc