Giving Wrightsville Beach the authority to fully enforce its beach strand smoking ban won’t be as easy as a local bill in the legislature.
Rep. Ted Davis (R-New Hanover) said Monday he was “very discouraged” to learn he couldn’t file locally focused legislation that would allow area beach towns to write smoking citations on state-owned portions of their beaches.
Davis told Wrightsville Beach Mayor David Cignotti during a gathering of local leaders that morning that he could only file a bill seeking a statewide–not purely local–amendment to that effect.
“You cannot have a local bill that deals with either the environment, health or a nuisance,” Davis explained. “It’s going to have to be done with a statewide bill.”
That might be a tough sell, he added.
“Not everyone in the state is going to be in favor of allowing a local entity to [enforce] an ordinance–no matter what it may be–on state owned property,” said Davis.
Wrightsville Beach enacted a smoking-on-the-beach ban following a supportive November 2012 referendum. But town aldermen in January said they needed some clarity on whether the authority extended beach-wide.
The crux is that parts of the beach are state-owned; in beach nourishment projects, the state essentially assumes control of land the new sand lands upon.
Cignotti told Port City Daily in January he felt the town had the authority over most of its beach, “but there are some areas that would be questionable, probably the area between the high tide and low tide area.”
Carolina Beach Town Council in August 2012 had approved an ordinance similarly banning smoking on the beach strand there, but the question over jurisdiction has held back enforcement.
Davis recently told the towns he was planning to file a bill that would resolve the issue and give them confidence that they could enforce their respective smoking bans beach-wide within town limits.
“I was very discouraged when I found out” a local bill wouldn’t do the trick, he said Monday, adding he hopes a statewide approach would find enough support in the House.
Specific to the beach smoking ban and helpful legislation, Cignotti said Monday he didn’t view the issue as partisan.
“It’s something I’m passionate about,” Cignotti said. “The Centers for Disease Control estimates 400,000 deaths annually in this country from smoking-related disease. And to me that’s a nonpartisan issue. It’s a health and litter issue. And I just ask that you continue to work together to help us with that and stay the course on both the smoking ban and the municipal authority, to help clarify what our authority is on our beach strand.”
Davis said attitudes toward smoking bans wouldn’t be the hurdle.
“Once again, all I’m trying to say is it’s not an issue about smoking as much as it’s going to be an issue of does the state pass a statewide bill … to allow a local entity–a municipality, beach town, whatever–the authority to enforce a local ordinance–no matter what it is–on state-owned property. That’s really the issue.”
He added: “I’m still working on it.”
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
