Proposed Bill Allows Cities To Ban Smoking At Public Parks, Playgrounds

A proposed bill in the state legislature would give local governments authority to ban smoking at parks and playgrounds they own and operate.

Cookeville may have helped spearhead interest in the bill after city council asked lawmakers to exempt Dogwood Park in 2017. That according to Power of Putnam Anti-Drug Coalition Executive Director Bill Gibson.

“That was the third property in Tennessee that had been exempted from this state statute,” Gibson said. “I understand from the 48 other anti-drug coalitions that the momentum from that has encouraged other people to jump on board. That has led to this bill being introduced in the legislature.”

The State of Tennessee currently has the power to regulate smoking at parks and allows certain exemptions to the law.

Cookeville requested exemption after Power of Putnam’s youth group undertook a project to make Dogwood Park smoke free.

“We ran into the preemption statute and it turned into a two or three-year project that has gotten a lot of acclaim on the state level,” Gibson said.

Gibson said the youth group began creating signage discouraging smoking at Dogwood Park.

“We’ve had a lot of requests from across the state to borrow the license to the signs that these kids designed,” Gibson said. “Long story short, it turned into the council actually approaching the state for a private act to exempt Dogwood Park.”

House Bill 0009 sought to do the exact same thing for Knox County, but Bill Sponsor Rick Staples said amendments now allow cities and counties to opt-in.

“This started out as a local piece of legislation to work towards banning smoking with signage in public parks,” Staples said. “It morphed in a positive way to where several entities wanted to join.”

If signed into law, counties and cities could prohibit smoking at their parks by adopting a resolution.