CHEVY CHASE, Md. — Smoking outdoors will soon be outlawed in a small corner of Maryland, except on private property, if the local Village Council gets its way.
In Friendship Heights, a neighborhood of about 5,000 residents in Chevy Chase, just outside Washington, the council is seeking county approval of a ban on smoking in all public spaces that are maintained by the village.
Under the ban, smoking on sidewalks, streets, patches of grass or any other area owned by the village would be punished with a $100 fine. Anyone discarding tobacco products in those areas would also be subject to the fine.
If the regulation is approved by Montgomery County, Friendship Heights will have the most far-reaching ban on outdoor smoking in the nation, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, a group that works to limit the exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.
Some 60 jurisdictions nationwide already ban outdoor smoking in some form, but none of the bans extends beyond enclosed public spaces — like stadiums, beaches or parks — to the sidewalks and streets outside, the group says.
The County Council is expected to vote on the measure on Dec. 12.
The prime mover behind the ban, Dr. Alfred Muller, the mayor of Friendship Heights, said that the goal was not only to deter smoking but also to protect civil rights.
As an example, Muller, a physician, brought up the case of a resident with asthma who often had to cross the street to avoid smokers. Otherwise, Muller said, "he would get smoke in his face. He would start coughing and it might set off an asthma attack."
Opponents of the ban said there was no evidence that smoking outdoors endangered the health of others, and accused Muller and the Village Council of trampling on their freedom.
"A whiff of smoke in someone's face is not a crime or something we need to worry about," said Cleonice Tavani, the president of the Friendship Heights Village Civic Association. "We do not need to be a police state."
The Village Council first approved the ban over four years ago but, faced with intense opposition, pulled it from the County Council before a vote could be taken. The county must approve all laws and regulations passed by the Village Council.
The neighborhood is a well-to-do mixture of high-rise apartments, shops and restaurants adjacent to a Metro stop.
Last September, the measure was finally reintroduced to the County Council because of "a friendlier environment both nationally and in the county," said Muller, pointing to the national tobacco settlement reached in 1998 and a ban on smoking in restaurants that the County Council approved last year.
But it is not clear that the community is any more receptive this year. For Cynthia Pierce, a librarian who puffed on a cigarette as she prepared to go shopping, the ban would be the equivalent of outlawing smoking. If smoking outside is no longer allowed, "they ought to just stop making cigarettes," said Pierce, 48, shaking her head. "You already feel like a criminal."
Tavani, the civic association president, said that most residents opposed the ban, and she accused Muller and the Village Council of trying to impose a regulation in defiance of the popular will.
Muller waved off such accusations. "This is not a referendum," he said. He was elected to do a job, he said, and if the residents are unhappy with his work, they can vote him out of office. His term expires in May.
The regulation's prospects in the County Council are uncertain, officials said. But Muller said that he liked its chances and that the regulation was consistent with other county and state laws.
"You're not allowed to walk down the street with alcohol," he said, "and no one makes a fuss about that."
"Public areas," he said, "were not built for people to do whatever they want."