OCEAN CITY – An amendment banning smoking and vaping in all city parks will advance to a second reading following a favorable vote.
On Monday, the Mayor and Council agreed to advance a code amendment making smoking and vaping unlawful in all public parks to a second reading. City Solicitor Heather Stansbury said the ordinance essentially eliminates designated smoking areas at Northside Park and changes references to marijuana.
“This removes Northside Park as a designated smoking area, thus prohibiting smoking and vaping in all public parks,” she explained. “And it modifies the reference to the word marijuana throughout this code section, as the state legislature, with the changes it the laws regarding this substance, has now asked that we refer to it as cannabis.”
In 2015, the council passed an ordinance making smoking and vaping unlawful in all public parks except Northside Park, where it would be allowed within 15 feet of designated smoking areas. That decision, officials say, was made to accommodate the vast number of smokers who participated in softball tournaments at Northside Park.
However, Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito told the council earlier this month that those designated smoking areas are not being appropriately used, and that unlawful smoking and vaping had increased throughout the park to include the unlawful use of cannabis products in public spaces.
“Unfortunately, even with staff/promoter efforts to curtail unlawful smoking, participants are ignoring the Town Code in reference to smoking at Northside Park, and are not limiting their smoking to the designated smoking areas,” a memo to the council reads.
To that end, Petito recommended the town code be amended to make smoking and vaping unlawful in all public parks within town, effectively eliminating designated smoking areas from Northside Park.
“We’re requesting to modify the ordinance to say that,” she said earlier this month.
Back on the agenda this week, a motion was made to approve the code amendment on first reading.
Council Secretary Tony DeLuca, however, said he would oppose the ordinance.
“First of all, you are outside at Northside Park, your child or grandson hits a winning homerun, and you can’t even light up a Short Story [cigar] at a designated smoking area,” he said. “Next, it’s going to be the beach. Peter [Buas] and I we pull our chairs back off the beach to the designated smoking area and fire up a Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story. So I’m going to be voting no.”
With no further discussion, the council voted 4-2, with DeLuca and Buas opposed and Councilman Will Savage absent, to approve the code amendment on first reading.