Dearborn City Hearing on Oakwood Smoking Ban Set for Thursday

A public hearing will be held Thursday, Feb. 7, to address concerns surrounding a no-smoking policy on the Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center campus.

Residents of the neighborhood surrounding Oakwood came before Dearborn City Council in December 2012 with concerns that a city ordinance banning smoking on hospital grounds was driving patients, visitors and employees who choose to smoke into their neighborhoods.

The ordinance, approved in January 2012 under the offenses chapter of the city code, added hospitals to the list of places in which smokers had to be at least 100 feet away before they could partake. It was enacted after Oakwood—which has its own no-smoking policy on the campus—came to the city asking for help in getting hospital staff and visitors off of Oakwood Boulevard when they chose to smoke.

The ordinance appeared to be a great solution for Oakwood, but created an ancillary problem, according to residents.

“We’d look out the door and there’s someone standing on the porch,” commented Donna Chaffin, a resident of Venice Street who worries that what's now just a nuisance could also become a security issue.

City Council in December decided to table a resolution to repeal the ordinance in favor of bringing all parties to the table in a hearing.

Thursday's hearing will be held immediately following the council's Committee of the Whole meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

The hearing is open to the public, and will be held in the City Council Chambers at Dearborn City Hall.