Smyrna bars smoking in downtown district

Ban includes use of regular cigarettes, plus e-cigarettes.

Smyrna leaders have voted to impose a ban on smoking in the city’s Downtown

Design District.

The City Council on Monday voted 6-1 to enact the prohibition in all public places along Atlanta Road between Windy Hill Road and Concord

and Spring roads. Council- woman Maryline Blackburn voted against the ban.

City Administrator Tammi Saddler Jones said the ban includes the use of traditional cigarettes as well as e-ciga- rettes.

She added the ban does not apply to private homes

and vehicles, retail tobacco stores, designated smoking areas in public places and places of employment, banquet or meetings rooms when they are being used for private functions and cigar specialty shops.

City Councilman Tim Gould said the ban will give busi- ness owners in the district the opportunity to also make their establishments smoke free if they choose to go in that direction. Any future businesses that open within the district will also have to be smoke free, he said.

Mayor Max Bacon said some businesses in the Downtown Design District have clamored for Smyrna to enact an ordinance banning the use of cigarettes. In places that already don’t allow smoking, Bacon said those establishments have been “much healthier.”

Councilwoman Blackburn said she opposed the proposal because she said Smyrna should have a citywide ban on smoking. She said other cities such as Atlanta and Savannah have already approved ordinances establishing those prohibitions.

”I don’t understand why Smyrna, Georgia, can’t be a smoke-free city,” she said.