Fort Collins Smoking Ban Could Expand – City to Host Public Open House

City to Host Public Open House May 22 to Review Expansion of Smoking Ordinance

Smoking in Fort Collins is becoming less and less popular. Officially, smokers are being slowly banished from all public places, and there is a public meeting that is coming up that will only increase that effort.

City staff will host a public open house May 22 on possible expansions of the Fort Collins Smoking Ordinance.

The open house will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. at 215 N. Mason Street, Community Room. Additional information about the proposals will be available at the open house along with results culled from more than 2,100 survey responses. Participants in the open house will have an opportunity to provide input on the proposals.

At an April 8 City Council work session, Council directed staff to move forward with exploring five proposals:

• Electronic smoking devices – Proposal to prohibit the use of electronic smoking devices in all places where conventional smoking is prohibited.
• 100 percent hotel/motel rooms – Proposal to increase the current requirement of 75 percent of hotel/motel rooms must be smoke-free to 100 percent.
• Parks, trails, natural areas – Proposal to prohibit smoking in all parks, trails, and natural areas (golf courses would be exempt).
• Public events – Proposal to prohibit smoking at all public events or festivals.
• Old Town/Downtown area – Proposal to make certain areas within the Old Town/Downtown area smoke-free.

For more information on the City’s smoking ordinances, go to http://www.fcgov.com/smokefree/.