State Status
Any Preemption
News Summary
Smoking Opinion: Attorney general’s legal opinion casts doubt over the city’s proposed smoking ban.
Publication Date: 2007-08-09
- Author:Michael Lee Pope
- Publication:Gazette Packet
Alexandria likes to consider itself a leader — a city willing to forge
its way into new legal territory and strike new ground in governance. For Mayor
Bill Euille, this tradition was at the heart of his proposed smoking ban in
bars and restaurants. The unusual plan didn’t actually ban smoking outright,
but it threatened not to renew the permits of bars and restaurants that failed
to ban smoking. Last month the council deferred the issue until next year, voting
for a "reenactment clause" in which the elected leaders promised to
take the issue up in 2008.
But the city’s regulatory tactics might not meet muster with state officials.
In a July 10 letter to Del. Bill Janis (R-56), which covers Goochland, Louisa and part of Henrico counties, Virginia’s Republican attorney general offered an opinion that seems to take issue with Alexandria’s approach. In the letter, Attorney General Robert McDonnell considers whether a locality "may ban smoking in all restaurants by denying restaurants a zoning permit unless the restaurants agree to be smoke free."
"It is my opinion that a locality may not impose restrictions on smoking
that are more stringent than those authorized by the Virginia Clean Indoor Air
Act," McDonnell wrote in the July 10 letter. "It further is my opinion
that a locality may not ban smoking in restaurants."
Because no other jurisdiction in Virginia has taken an approach that uses permitting
authority to ban smoking, the opinion appears to be aimed at Alexandria’s
City Hall. Yet city leaders are not willing to give up on the issue without
a fight.