With a new smoking ordinance taking effect on March 12 that adjusts rules for smoking indoors, the Fort Worth City Council discussed the possibility of outdoor ordinances at its March 6 work session.
Though no official decision was reached, council members received a briefing from Co-Compliance Director Brandon Bennett during the work session.
“We’ve already sent education material out to bars, restaurants, anyone who would be impacted” by the new ordinance, Bennett said, and he then turned his attention to outdoor smoking.
“There is no safe tobacco. It doesn’t matter if you light it, chew it, eat it, it is not good for you,” he said, noting that annually 14.5 million people die or become ill because of tobacco products.
Bennett stressed that the most dangerous form of second-hand smoke is indoors in close proximity, which the city has already addressed. However, he said, while outdoor second-hand smoke is generally a lower risk, there are exceptions.
For example, he said, if a non-smoker with asthma is 50 feet from someone smoking, that is close enough to create difficulty breathing.
He cited statistics showing that about 45 percent of Americans smoked in 1965 compared with 15 percent now. And he noted that in the late 1980s, 88 percent of non-smokers had some measure of exposure to second-hand smoke compared with 25 percent in the latest study (2012). He said self-policing has played a big role in this adjustment.
“What you see more and more is when somebody goes to light up a cigarette they move away from the non-smokers,” he said.
Bennett said Fort Worth is the only benchmark city in the state that allows smoking in its parks. San Antonio prohibits smoking in pavilions and playgrounds; Arlington prohibits smoking in pavilions, playgrounds and other outdoor venues; and Dallas, El Paso, Austin and Houston prohibit all smoking in parks. Dallas and Austin exclude golf courses.
“A good policy would be to do what many of the cities have done and say no smoking in a city park,” Bennett said.
Bennett said smoking on a public sidewalk is not a pressing public health concern, but District 4 Councilman Cary Moon disagreed, saying that when people leave an establishment to smoke outdoors, they will likely go to the sidewalk, especially if smoking is banned in parks.
“People may not have a choice to navigate around,” Moon said. “We’re creating a nuisance with our ordinance, and this is what I’m trying to get around. For the properties we own, we should have the same rules we ask private business owners to comply with.”
Senior Assistant City Attorney Christa Reynolds said no ordinance could be put in place for all sidewalks because the city does not own them all. Moon argued that the city’s panhandling ordinance regulates sidewalk activity.
“We control behaviors all the time on private property,” he said.
Reynolds said there are some sidewalks the city owns where it could impose smoking regulations, such as in front of the library. She said the Surgeon General’s report on the dangers of smoking allow for more enforcement indoors.
Bennett recommended:
• Prohibiting smoking in all areas of a city park except outdoor areas of golf courses and the Will Rogers Memorial Center complex.
• Allowing the parks director to create rules to permit smoking in segregated areas of parks, subject to objective rules. An example would be Concerts in the Garden, held in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
• Not regulating smoking on public sidewalks beyond what’s already on the books.
While Mayor Betsy Price said she understood the recommendation for parks, she disagreed with Moon, saying, “I’m not a big fan of ordinances and regulations you can’t enforce. You cannot regulate sidewalk smoking. It’s going to be really hard to regulate park smoking. Is that where we want to be if we’re a city that’s promoting tourism and additional business movement?”
The mayor asked staff to look deeper at the recommendations for more discussion at a later date.
The ordinance that becomes effective March 12 prohibits smoking in bars and bingo parlors, and it bars retail smoke shops within 300 feet of schools, universities and hospitals.
It also defines retail smoke shops as businesses that have cigarette, tobacco and related product sales of 90 percent gross annual sales for retail smoke shops and 30 percent of gross annual sales for cigar lounges.
Other new or revised definitions include:
• Electronic smoking device: included to address e-cigarettes and to be consistent with smoke-free cities.
• Private clubs: revised to be consistent with smoke-free cities.
• Smoking: amended to include electronic smoking devices.
• Cigar lounge: included to distinguish between a retail smoke shop and allow for onsite alcohol consumption.
Clarifications include:
• Allowing retail smoke shops and cigar lounges to provide for an air ventilation system as an alternative to being a stand-alone facility.
• Continuing to allow smoking in outdoor dining areas and patios, provided the area is 20 feet from entrances and exits.
The council voted 8-1 to approve those changes. The lone no vote was Moon, calling it “bad governance” and asking his fellow council members to look into implementing a policy that includes public property such as sidewalks, parks and children in the back seats of cars where the driver smoking.
This is the first change to the city’s smoking ordinance in almost a decade.
TRANSIT IMPACT FEES
The council received an update on the proposed transportation impact fee collection rates from Planning and Development Director Randle Harwood.
This is a one-time fee charged to new development projects to help fund transportation improvements needed as development occurs. Transportation impact fees are applied to individual building permits and collected before the permits are issued.
The proposed rate calls for a 25 percent inflation factor to the current fee amounts. For example, on a single-family home the fee would increase to an average of $3,750. Other rates would be $2,119 for an apartment unit, $23,808 for a 3,000-square-foot restaurant, $32,340 for a 10,000-square-foot office, $164,750 for a 50,000-square-foot retail establishment and $225,000 for a 300,000-square-foot warehouse.
Discounts may be available under certain conditions.
Moon, along with District 7 Councilman Dennis Shingleton, spoke of staggered rates. Moon suggested an increase in apartment rates and warehouses and a decrease for restaurants.
“I’ll just do the math later,” he said.
Harwood said this adjustment would put Fort Worth in the middle of the rates charged by Metroplex cities but at the highest rate in Tarrant County.
“To me there needs to be a better formula that factors in sales tax, factors in jobs,” Moon said.
Harwood said fees can be adjusted during a five-year period.
He recommended keeping the current rate for the rest of the year, with the proposed new rate, if passed, to become effective for collection on Jan. 1.
“This would allow the development community to adapt their performances to what the new rates will be next year,” he said.
Harwood said that of five groups that received presentations on the proposed new rates, the Fort Worth Builders Association and Fort Worth Real Estate
Council opposed the fee increase. However, the Builders Association would support a delay of implementation to Jan. 1.
“No one wants change. We have to stay competitive,” Price said. “I don’t think these are real onerous.”
Price also agreed to the idea of implementing the new rates Jan. 1.
Harwood recommended bringing a proposal to the council for a vote at its March 20 meeting.
NEW TOWNHOMES
The council approved a zoning change to allow for some new townhomes to be built in the area of Galvez Avenue, South Sylvania Avenue, Fisher Avenue and Trinity River. The owner/applicant is Fourth & Sylvania Inc.
The change is from one-family and two-family structures.
The plan is to build a townhouse cluster not to exceed four units per building, and the interior not to exceed five units per building. The total units are not to exceed 100.
The planned development was originally approved by the Council in May 2017. The applicant has bought additional lots in the area and wants to include them in the project.
The zoning board approved the project, 9-0.
There have not been any neighborhood meetings held regarding this zoning case, the applicant said.
ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX
In a last-minute change, the council on March 6 approved a hotel/entertainment/condo project that was originally tabled, paving the way for a new facility in the 4800 and 4900 blocks of Old Decatur Road.
The property is just north of the Meacham Airport. The east side of the property is a former quarry where water has collected to form a pond.
Quarry Falls Development LLC plans a pair of hotels with up to 125 rooms in one and up to 175 in the other on the 72-acre site. It also plans to build condominiums and up to 450 rental units.
Plans include a swim/lake beach, a boardwalk around the pond, restaurants, bars, a nightclub and a performance facility that can handle more than 3,500 people.
The change allows for bars, hotels with a maximum height of seven stories and entertainment structures no taller than six stories, including a Ferris wheel with a maximum height of 135 feet. Around the nearby lake will be high density multi-family units.
Concerns had been raised about traffic on Old Decatur Road as a result of this project. That road serves as one of two connections to Loop 820, with Marine Creek Parkway to the west as the second.
However, Goodwin and Marshall Engineering representatives said they met with the Trailwood Homeowners Association and are working toward a solution.
“We want to work with not just the neighbors, but staff as well,” said Edward Eckart. “We’d like to see traffic move quickly and efficiently on Old Decatur Road. That’s obviously good for this development as well.”
The project was approved by the zoning commission 9-0.
Several low-level parking garages are proposed in between mixed-use buildings.
The Ferris wheel is expected to include LED lights that change colors and patterns. The developer has verified that it does not fall within an area of concern from the Meacham Airport runway to the south, and the lighting will require Texas Department of Transportation approval to ensure that it does not distract drivers.
The project is in Council District 2, represented by Carlos Flores. He thanked the involved entities for working out their differences, calling it “a very ambitious project and a very worthwhile project for District 2.”