PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Commissioners will soon weigh in on a new change: banning smoking on the sandy shorelines of three county-owned beach parks.
In July, state leaders paved the way for local counties, cities, towns and municipalities to make their own rules regarding smoking bans on local beaches.
Pinellas County leaders said discarded cigarette butts are a big concern at the prized beaches.
The proposal would affect Fort De Soto in Tierra Verde, Sand Key Park in Clearwater and Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, and the rules would target the beach and dune areas.
“That’s really the reason why we’ve limited it to the sandy dune and the beach," the Director of the Pinellas County Parks and Conservation Resources Paul Cozzie explained. "We don’t want to tell people they can’t smoke in the parks themselves because we are not trying to infringe on that right, but rather we want to make sure the beaches are clean."
Cozzie said if county commissioners plan to move forward, the bans would be enforced by park rangers. Fines could cost smokers $118 bucks, but county leaders could choose to lower the fines or make them higher.
Some beach visitors are blowing smoke on the idea.
Rand Stollmack believed that if people are mindful, pick up after themselves and are respectful to others, the new rules are overkill.
“We have too many rules," he said. "It’s the beach."
Metin Mete said he is 50/50 about the idea.
“Some people have lived here a long time," he elaborated. "Some people don’t like change. Some people feel like it’s a beach. It’s open, it’s public."
Others think it would be a great solution to cut down on pollution.
“I even vape myself, but anything to get the beaches cleaned up and the ocean cleaned up, I’m all for that,” Kourtney Kruser said.
Pinellas County leaders stressed that there would be a lot of public discussions before any of these new rules are put forward.
Commissioners will discuss the potential ban for the first time on Sept. 15 during a county workshop, but it still has a long way to go before it is put into place, which likely wouldn’t be until next year.
Cozzie presented the idea to the Big C on Wednesday. The Big C is a group made up of local mayors and leaders from all the beach communities in Pinellas County.
The Big C could decide to also put beach smoking rules in place for their communities at some point soon.
