Politics & Government

Reston Association To Mull Wider Smoking Ban

RA North Point Director Mike Collins will introduce motion to prohibit smoking within 50 feet of Reston Association facilities.

Reston Association North Point Director Mike Collins will introduce a motion at this week's meeting that will expand the no-smoking zone around RA facilities and change signage to include information on how to quit smoking.

The current RA policy says smoking is prohibited within all RA community buildings, pool facilities, tennis courts, picnic pavilions, ball fields, multipurpose courts, garden plots and tot lots.

This smoking ban is also in effect for up to a 25-foot perimeter around these buildings or facilities or to the extent that the 25 feet, or any portion thereof, comprises RA Common Area.

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Collins' motion extends the no-smoking zone to 50 feet and also adds a request that people not smoke in other RA areas, such as on the bike paths.

"More than 700 municipalties have similar smoking rules," says Collins. 

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Collins' motion adds this to the end of Common Area Rules & Regulations Resolution 1, Paragraph 4: "On Common Area property where smoking is not prohibited by this resolution, RA strongly discourages smoking and requests that all persons refrain from smoking.”

A second motion authorizes RA to place signs in well-traveled locations along paved pathways with the following language: 

For the sake of your health and those around you, please help RA keep our paths and parks smoke-free. If you need help to quit smoking, call 1 -800-QUIT NOW or go to www.smokefree.gov.

Funding for such signage shall be obtained through private donations and grants, Collins says. He said he does not yet know what the cost of the signs will be.

In late 2011, Reston Association voted to install including tot lots, soccer fields, garden plots and tennis courts. That also came from a motion from Collins.

Those signs cost $41 each, totalling around $5,000. Money for those signs came out of the 2011 budget.

Signs are already in place at Reston's pools and community buildings. 

While Nobles has gotten more than 1,400 signatures on a petition supporting a bike path smoking ban, the idea was not supported by most RA board members when they discussed it in late 2011. The main caveat:  How would RA enforce such a ban?

Then-RA president Kathleen Driscoll said in 2011 that she was unconvinced RA had the manpower to enforce such a thing.

"We are not convinced that we have the staffing ability on all 55 miles of pathways to enforce this," she said. "We have agreed that none of us have registered a significant amount of infractions. From time to time, sure, people smoke, but I once counted and saw no one. "

Collins said that expanding the no-smoking zone and encouraging voluntary compliance on the paths is a "good compromise."

 Keep up with all Reston Association news. Subscribe to Reston Patch's free daily newsletter.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here