Council votes unanimously to extend city smoking ban

• In other city news:
• City Council voted unanimously to postpone the second reading of a bag fee ordinance.
• It will now take place on Aug. 19. If passed then, the fee would go into effect Jan. 2, 2015.

Fort Collins City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to expand the city’s outdoor smoking ban to include electronic cigarettes and all city hotel rooms.

Starting July 26, electronic smoking devices will now be banned from all places conventional smoking is prohibited under the city’s smoking ordinance.

All hotel or motel rooms within the city, which previously had to keep 75 percent of rooms smoke free, will also have to be 100 percent smoke-free by the end of this year.

Councilman Ross Cunniff called the expansion of the smoking ordinance “a necessary step in protecting our public health.”

Late last year, council passed a smoking ban for outdoor eating and drinking areas in bars and restaurants. That ban went into effect in January and June for some establishments.

The city’s first smoking ban dates back to 1984, when voters approved an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public buildings, places of employment and businesses used by the public.

In 2003, that ban was extended to bars and restaurants, also prohibiting smoking within 20 feet of entrances to buildings accessible by the public.

The ordinance expanding the ban to electronic cigarettes and all hotel rooms was passed on its first reading earlier this month on a 6-1 vote, with Mayor Karen Weitkunat being the sole dissenting vote.

Weitkunat was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

In other action

City Council voted unanimously to postpone the second reading of a bag fee ordinance that would implement a 10-cent fee on each disposable bag Fort Collins grocery stores provide to shoppers. The second reading will take place on Aug. 19, giving more time for public input. If passed Aug. 19, the fee will go into effect Jan. 2, 2015.