City of Winter Haven Considers Banning Vaping and Smoking in City Parks
by James Coulter
Do you plan on taking a puff of your vape? Not so fast! You won’t be able to do that in a public park if the City of Winter Haven adopts an ordinance.
At their meeting on Mon. Mar. 10, Winter Haven city commissioners reviewed a proposed ordinance that would place restrictions on vaping and smoking in public parks within the city limits.
Specifically, the ordinance would prohibit “smoking within the boundaries of any public parks and/or public beaches that the municipality owns and/or leases.”
The Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) for Polk County had adopted a similar ordinance restricting vaping and smoking within public parks owned or leased by the county. That ordinance had been adopted on Nov. 7, 2023.
Assistant City Manager Charlie Bird, wrote in the city agenda memo that the ordinance is being considered “in an effort to affirm and promote a healthy environment within the City.”
As such, the ordinance, as Bird further elucidated, would promote “the public health, safety, morals and welfare of the citizens, residents and visitors to the City.”
No private businesses would be impacted by the ordinance, either through economic impact or on “direct compliance costs” through any new charges or fees.
However, as Bird explained, “there may potentially be indirect impacts on the sale of tobacco products within the City but such potential impacts are so de-minimus and/or negligible that same are not ascertainable.”
City Commissioners did not vote on the ordinance that evening. They will review and vote on the ordinance at their next meeting scheduled for Mon. Mar. 24, 2025.
