Background
As part of a course at Shakopee High School, groups of students were assigned a variety of issues and tasked with coming up with policy based solutions to solve the issue. For several months in the spring a group of student worked on looking at what precedents existed for establishing an ordinance to ban smoking in the city's public parks. The group of students assembled a presentation, which is attached to this report, which outlined what would be needed to accomplish this.

At the same time, the City was approached by Scott County Public Health Department Staff who also advocated that we adopt such an ordinance. Savage is currently the only other city in Scott County which has smoke-free parks, however as of 2018, 177 public agencies in Minnesota have adopted smoke-free policies in public parks.

Smoke-Free Parks

The proposed ordinance has benefits for both environmental and health reasons. Tobacco product litter is dangerous to birds, fish and children in parks and cigarette wastes are not biodegradable, remaining visible until they are removed.

Smoking, especially electronic cigarette use, is on the rise. Banning smoking in parks is associated with a heightened perception of difficulty to smoke among young adults, both smokers and nonsmokers. Tobacco-free environments also promote positive community role modeling and help change community norms. 

The proposed ordinance would prohibit tobacco use in all city-owned parks and within city-owned shelters as well as prohibit tobacco use on the grounds of SandVenture, the Shakopee Ice Arena, the Shakopee Community Center, and the Youth Building in Lions Park. The ordinance would not prohibit residents from using tobacco within their motor vehicles when in a park. 

Parks and Recreation Board Review