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When N.C. restaurants and bars go smoke-free at the start of 2010, smokers might find another place they aren't welcome: part of Elizabeth Avenue and its sidewalks.
Central Piedmont Community College campuses are going tobacco-free next year, and the school asked the city of Charlotte to ban smoking on Elizabeth Avenue from Kings Drive to Charlottetown Avenue, where it bisects its central campus.
If the City Council approves the ban, Charlotte would be among the first cities in the country to ban smoking on a city sidewalk or street.
The city currently can regulate smoking in government buildings. When North Carolina's new smoking law takes effect Jan. 2, local governments could prohibit smoking in parks. But it's unclear whether governments can prohibit smoking on other public property - such as sidewalks or streets.
"This is a novel question," said Charlotte city attorney Mac McCarley, whose office is researching the issue. "It's probably one that the drafters of the statute didn't think about when they drafted it. It's open to interpretation."
It's unlikely that any new restrictions on Elizabeth Avenue would prohibit people from smoking in their cars.
CPCC leaders worry that if students can smoke only on the sidewalk, it will undermine the campus smoking ban, turning Elizabeth into an ashtray.
"It will be unattractive," said Amanda Capobianchi, the college's director of student life.
N.C.'s new law will ban smoking in restaurants and bars - a move that many other states made years ago. But if Charlotte moves forward with an Elizabeth Avenue ban, it would propel the city into the forefront of antismoking efforts around the country, said Cynthia Hallett, the executive director of the California-based Americans for Non-Smokers Rights.
New York City is considering banning smoking in parks, and the California municipality of Santa Cruz recently banned smoking on two streets.
"The general trend, if you will, is that we start from the inside and work out," Hallett said. "You have people saying, 'Gee, I'd like to sit outside. Can't we make that smoke-free too?'"
If McCarley advised that Charlotte could make a section of Elizabeth Avenue smoke-free, the city council would make the final decision. McCarley said he hopes to make a recommendation this fall.
"I think it's an awful idea," said Charlotte City Council member Andy Dulin, a Republican who is running for re-election. Dulin said any street or sidewalk ban would infringe on people's freedom.
Council member Susan Burgess, a Democrat who is also running for re-election, said she could be open to the idea if it helped the college.
If the city moves forward with the Elizabeth ban, it could, in theory, expand it to other areas of the city, such as Trade Street in front of the Time Warner Cable Arena, or the intersection of Trade and Tryon streets uptown.
Smoking isn't allowed today in CPCC's buildings. At CPCC's Information Technology building on the corner of Elizabeth Avenue and Charlottetown Avenue, the school has already banned smoking immediately outside the doors, under a portico.
But trash cans are covered with cigarette butts. People have to take only one step onto the city sidewalk to legally smoke.
CPCC's ban in January includes not only buildings, but also campus sidewalks and outdoor common areas.
"It makes sense that Elizabeth would be included," said Jessica Graham, a CPCC spokesperson.
CPCC senior Jessica Barnette smoked Tuesday afternoon after class and said she was OK with the school's campus-wide ban. But not being able to smoke on the sidewalk seemed unfair, she said.
"I don't see how they can say you can't smoke in the street," Barnette said. "They don't own the street."
UNC Charlotte prohibits smoking in almost all buildings. But the university doesn't have any city-owned streets through campus, so it wouldn't lobby the city for an Elizabeth Avenue-style ban, spokesperson Paul Nowell said.
