Indian Rocks Beach, FL – Indian Rocks Beach officials are considering restrictions on smoking and vaping along the shoreline to address cigarette litter, secondhand smoke and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
The City Commission is scheduled to hold a final reading Tuesday on an ordinance prohibiting cigarettes, filtered cigars and electronic vaping devices in beach areas.<\/p>\n
The proposed rules would apply to the sand and dunes. Smoking is already prohibited in city parks.<\/p>\n
Commissioners approved the ordinance on first reading in August. <\/p>\n
The final hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. September 8 at the Indian Rocks Beach Civic Auditorium, located at 1507 Bay Palm Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Mayor Lan Vaughan said cigarette butts regularly remain in the sand because beach-cleaning equipment cannot collect all of the small waste. <\/p>\n
Officials have also raised concerns about discarded filters reaching sewer systems and exposing visitors to secondhand smoke.<\/p>\n
Local cleanup volunteers have identified cigarette butts as one of the most common types of trash collected along the beach.<\/p>\n
Cigarette filters contain plastic that can break into smaller particles and remain in the environment.<\/p>\n
The ordinance would require signs informing visitors about the restrictions at beach entrances.<\/p>\n
Unfiltered cigars would remain permitted because Florida law does not allow cities and counties to prohibit them at public beaches or parks.<\/p>\n
State lawmakers expanded local authority over beach and park smoking regulations in 2022.<\/p>\n
Municipalities may also adopt additional restrictions covering vaping devices.<\/p>\n
Repeat violations could carry penalties of up to $500 or 60 days in jail. City leaders said the goal is compliance.<\/p>\n
If approved, Indian Rocks Beach would join Clearwater, Treasure Island and Gulfport in restricting smoking on public beaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian Rocks Beach, FL – Indian Rocks Beach officials are considering restrictions on smoking and vaping along the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[13540,26767,67498,187,4184,27392,29041,45880,202,204,203,199,201,200,19992,157251],"class_list":["post-394135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ban","tag-cigarettes","tag-cigars","tag-city","tag-commissioners","tag-indian-rocks-beach","tag-ordinance","tag-smoking","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-vaping","tag-vaping-devices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}