Properties See Smoking Problems

STUDENTS LIGHT UP OFF CAMPUS NEAR APARTMENTS, ACROSS FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Luke McConnell, left, and Chris Hart smoke cigarettes Tuesday across Cleveland Street from a University of Arkansas dormitory and across Hall Avenue from Leverett Elementary School. A ban on tobacco at the university forces students off campus to smoke.
Luke McConnell, left, and Chris Hart smoke cigarettes Tuesday across Cleveland Street from a University of Arkansas dormitory and across Hall Avenue from Leverett Elementary School. A ban on tobacco at the university forces students off campus to smoke.

— The University of Arkansas’ ban on smoking and other tobacco products may have ended the practice on campus, but the owners of two nearby properties say it just shifted the problem to them.

Every day, smokers who live on campus are frequenting their self-created smoking zone on a sidewalk across Cleveland Street from the Maple Hill residence hall complex.

The new smoke hole isn’t sitting well with the owner of the property where smokers are congregating or with the principal at neighboring Leverett Elementary School.

“It’s an ugly scene,” said Fadil Bayyari, who owns the Bayyari Apartments on Cleveland Street, where smokers have established a outdoor smoking area on a public sidewalk in front of his business.

Bayyari and Leverett Principal Cheryl Putnam want the students to stop smoking and littering on the apartment and school properties. Putnam said much of it occurs at night, but she has chased smokers away from the school grounds on numerous occasions during the day. Fayetteville’s School District has been tobacco-free since 2004 by policy adopted by the School Board.

A street separates the school playground and the unofficial smoking area in front of Bayyari Apartments. A rock wall in front of the apartments provides a seating area for the students.

One of the students, Chris Hart of Little Rock, estimated up to 200 students use the area on any given weekday. He said he bought buckets for students to toss their cigarette butts into in an effort to keep the area clean.

“It’s become a community,” said Hart, who lives in the Maple Hill complex.

Bayyari, who said he too purchased buckets, nonetheless still has to have employees from his construction and property management business clean the area at least two times a day.

The university became tobacco-free in 2008 at the recommendation of a campuswide committee, but a UA spokesman said the change was limited.

“There was no enforcement component in it,” said Scott Flanagin, a spokesman in the student affairs office. “We were trying to change the culture by getting (smokers) to comply with the policy.”

All the ash cans were removed from the campus within a few weeks after the campus became tobacco-free, Flanagin said.

The Arkansas Legislature in 2009 passed a law to ban smoking or the use of other tobacco products on all public college and university campuses, including Fayetteville. The law took effect in July 2010. Flanagin said that started the issues surrounding students’ efforts to find legal places where they could smoke.

Bayyari and Putnam said the smokers leave cigarette butts on the ground, not to mention beer cans, soft drink cans and empty snack bags that also litter the areas. Putnam said cleaning the mess left behind isn’t as easy as sweeping the sidewalks because the butts often end up in the grass and have to be picked up by hand along with the litter.

He said he thought about removing the rock wall that lines the sidewalk but has decided not to do that.

“If anyone needs to pony up, it should be the university and the city. The problem has nothing to do with me,” Bayyari said.

The problem may not be one the city and university can solve, either, officials said.

City Attorney Kit Williams said the city has limited power to do anything because the city can’t ban a person from smoking outdoors. Outdoor air quality control is the exclusive domain of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

The sidewalk is public but it is considered an access easement the landowner has provided the city. The land underneath the sidewalk still belongs to the landowner, Williams said. Bayyari could post a sign banning the students from his property but the city can’t necessarily enforce his sign, Williams said.

“I don’t think Bayyari has any recourse. I’ve told him that,” Williams said. “This is one the government can’t solve.”

Additional issues, such as loitering or littering, probably won’t provide relief either, he said. Littering is a misdemeanor that an officer must witness before he can issue a citation. State law defines loitering as being in a public place for no apparent reason, presenting a threat to public safety or without a purpose for being in that spot, Williams said.

Williams said it appears the university’s ban has pushed the smoking issue off the campus but is forcing others to deal with it.

“We love the university, but it doesn’t mean they don’t make a mistake,” Williams said.

The university is complying with the state law by banning smoking on campus, said Steve Voorhies, a university spokesman.

Bayyari thinks the city and the university are wrong, that they have enforcement responsibilities that aren’t being used.

“They are all hiding behind the law,” he said. “It’s an ugly scene and has diminished the value and look of my property.”

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