OCEAN CITY – A code amendment banning smoking and vaping in all city parks will advance to a first reading following a favorable vote Tuesday.
This week, the Mayor and Council agreed to advance a code amendment making smoking and vaping unlawful in all public parks to a first reading. Ocean City Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito said the change would eliminate designated smoking areas at Northside Park.
“What’s happened is they are not using the designated smoking areas,” she told the council Tuesday. “I believe it’s time for us to make it a clean, across-the-board statement that there is no smoking in parks throughout Ocean City.”
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, Petito told the council this week 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.
Get real and let people live, before they put all you local lawmakers in your place.
I do hope the powers that be consider how this will impact LEOs. They are going to have to enforce this and I hope they have a seat at the table come decision making time.
Will smoking hot women wearing small bits of fabric still be permitted in the park?
Asking for a friend…