Attorney General OKs Williamstown Ban on Smoking in Apartments
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Attorney General's Office has approved a town meeting action to implement a smoking ban for apartments with more than four units.
Now it is up to the town to figure out how to implement the restriction.
In May, town meeting by a 148-56 margin, voted yes on a warrant article proposed by citizen's petition and endorsed by the town's Board of Health.
The Board of Health and the town's health inspector, would have the authority to impose fines of up to $300 for repeat offenders.
The primary responsibility for enforcing the ban on smoking within 25 feet of an apartment or condominium would fall on the landlord or "condominium/cooperative manager," who would be on the hook for the fines, which start at $100 for a first violation.
The AGO had asked the town for an extension to the standard period for the review made for all town meeting actions across the commonwealth.
On Monday evening, Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the Select Board that he received word at the close of business that the Attorney General's Office gave its blessing to what was listed as Article 30 on May's annual town meeting warrant.
"They essentially said: We can't find any reason not to approve this," Menicocci said, paraphrasing the official notification from Boston.
"We definitely have a lot of follow-up and questions for our counsel. The important takeaway is there aren't barriers to moving forward, but there are barriers on how to craft something that's workable."
Menicocci indicated that existing law and legal precedent surrounding housing rights make it a complex issue that will involve considerable help from town counsel to develop an enforcement action plan.
Although the primary enforcement lies with landlords in the ordinance as drafted, there are issues of consistency on how the ban is applied throughout town and how the health inspector will play "referee," Menicocci said.
The AGO also on Monday told the town that Article 27 before the 2025 annual town meeting was, "essentially approved with one condition," Menicocci said.
Article 27 dealt with the use of closed-loop geothermal wells, specifically regulating the use of systems that employ propylene glycol or "any other chemical heat transfer fluid other than potable
water" in the town's Water Resource District.
The town manager said he still needs time to study the notification received late Monday before getting into specifics. But he said the bylaw approved by town meeting, "largely ... can move forward with the exception of some text they disapproved of related to some environmental protection stuff superseded by some state regulations."
Tags: smoking ban, smoking regulations,
