Raleigh City Council to vote on $75 million transportation bond issue

Raleigh will create ordinance banning smoking in parks

Published: January 18, 2011

Kelly Standish lights up a cigarette as he visited Carolina Pines Dog Park in Raleigh on Monday, Jan. 4, 2011. He said he did not mind the city banning smoking in parks. (And he did not litter after he finished his cigarette.) The city is considering a ban on cigarette smoking in most city parks.

TAKAAKI IWABU — tiwabu@newsobserver.com

By Ray Martin — Staff writer

RALEIGH — The City of Raleigh on Tuesday moved a step closer to banning smoking in public parks.

The City Council voted 6-2 to develop a no-smoking ordinance, which it will vote on at a later meeting.

The ordinance will prohibit smoking in city parks, but not in downtown’s Nash and Moore squares, which are owned by the state and operated by the city.

Mayor Charles Meeker proposed the measure. If approved, it would call for roughly $25,000 worth of no-smoking signs.

It would ban smoking products, but not other tobacco.

Council members John Odom and Thomas Crowder voted against the proposal. Odom said there are too many unanswered questions, such as the cost of enforcement.

Order Reprint Back to Top

< Previous Story