The new rule would go further than Seattle’s current limit, which prohibits smoking, chewing or other tobacco use within 25 feet of other park patrons and in play areas, beaches and playgrounds.
Seattle officials announced Thursday they want to expand the city’s limits on smoking in parks.
Mayor Ed Murray’s administration is asking the Board of Park Commissioners to approve a rule that would prohibit smoking in all public parks in the city.
The new rule would go further than Seattle’s current limitation, introduced in 2010, which bars smoking, chewing and other tobacco use within 25 feet of other park patrons and in play areas, beaches and playgrounds. There hasn’t been much enforcement of the current limits.
“We are asking the Board of Park Commissioners to consider this issue because smoking is incongruous with our values of healthy parks and healthy people,” said Christopher Williams, acting Seattle Parks and Recreation superintendent. “Visitors come to parks to enjoy healthful, outdoor recreation. When there are smokers in a park, it diminishes others’ ability to do that.”
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The board is an advisory panel, and the new rule wouldn’t be part of the official Seattle Municipal Code, so the parks department doesn’t need approval from the board or the City Council.
The new rule wouldn’t apply to vape pens and electronic cigarettes because those products can help people quit smoking regular cigarettes, parks-department spokeswoman Joelle Hammerstad said. She said the new rule would be simpler and therefore easier to follow.
Murray praised the proposal, calling it “the right thing to do.”
“Residents of and visitors to our beautiful city deserve to fully enjoy every amenity our parks have to offer, including fresh air and a clean, sustainable environment,” the mayor said.
“We know the dangers of secondhand smoke … and we know that cigarette litter is abundant and harmful to our environment, especially for the wildlife that inhabit it. Waste from cigarettes leach arsenic, cadmium, lead and other toxins into our soil and … streams and damage ecosystems.”
The plan likely will be popular with many park patrons, but some Seattle residents questioned it.
Lindsey Anderson, 21, was sitting with a friend Thursday in Denny Park.
“I smoke myself in the park,” Anderson said. “I make sure I don’t smoke if there’s someone on the bench next to me. I go to another bench or walk over to a tree. I respect peoples’ space, but I do think people have a right to smoke.”
Peter Nice doesn’t smoke but has spent a lot of time in a Belltown dog park where others do, he said.
“People I know who go there every day are people without a lot of money,” said Nice, 45. “The little enjoyment they get is to go to the park, have a smoke, relax and be with each other. I have sympathy for hardworking people and their small pleasures. If they’re staying away from others and children, maybe we should grant them that.”
Breaking the rule could result in a verbal reminder from a park ranger, Hammerstad said.
The next step, in the case of a persistent violator, would be a verbal warning, followed by a written warning and then a written, temporary park-exclusion order. If someone were to disobey that order, he or she could be arrested by a police officer for trespassing, Hammerstad said.
“But the last thing we want is to have someone arrested for smoking,” she said. “That’s not the point. We’re trying to educate people.”
The current smoking restrictions in the parks are enforced in a similar way. Seattle park rangers operate only in the city’s downtown parks, so the parks department mostly counts on patrons to behave themselves.
The parks department has issued zero written orders for smoking so far, spokesman David Takami said.
“We’ve relied on verbal requests and volunteer compliance,” Takami said.
The Seattle Police Department expects its officers “to spend more time ensuring that violent crimes and other quality-of -life issues are addressed before we look for someone smoking a cigarette,” spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.
The organizers of certain permitted events, such as Hempfest, can request temporary suspension of the current smoking ban, under certain conditions. That would continue under the new rule, Hammerstad said.
The city initially sought a complete ban on smoking in parks in 2010. Former Superintendent Tim Gallagher, who wanted the full ban, went against the board’s recommendation to restrict smoking only in some park areas. But then Gallagher backed off and settled on the current rule.
Portland passed a parks smoking ban last month. New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia all ban smoking in parks.
The Board of Park Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the proposed rule change at 6:30 p.m. April 16 in the Kenneth R. Bounds Board Room at Seattle Parks and Recreation Headquarters, 100 Dexter Ave. N.