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Jackson Smoke-Free Ordinance
Capital City Smoke-Free Ordinance Highlights
Jackson Smoke-Free Ordinance (PDF, 31.9 MB).
Who is exempt? Under the amended ordinance in effect as of Feb. 1, 2009, it’s easier to say who is exempt rather than who is covered. We’ve listed the exemptions—where the city does not regulate smoking—below, in order by their ease of understanding.
It’s safe to assume that “areas where smoking is prohibited” are all indoor and outdoor venues not specifically covered by these exemptions.
1. “Private residences, except when used as a childcare, adult day care, or health care facility.”
2. “Not more than twenty percent (20%) of hotel and motel rooms rented to guests and designated as smoking rooms. … On the same floor … contiguous … and smoke from these rooms must not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited …”
3. “Retail tobacco stores … provided smoke from these areas does not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited …”
4. “Private Clubs that have no employees, except when being used for a function to which the general public is invited provided that smoke from such clubs does not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited…”
Mississippi code (67-1-5) defines a club as being “maintained by its members through the payment of annual dues,” among other specific definitions.
5. “Outdoor areas of places of employment, except those covered by the provisions of Section 86-167 …”
Section 86-167 prohibits smoking in outdoor areas as follows:
a. Areas within “twenty (20) feet outside entrances, operable windows, and ventilation systems where smoking is prohibited …”
b. “In outdoor seating or serving areas of restaurants and within twenty (20) feet thereof.
c. “In all outdoor areas, stadiums, and amphitheaters, except in designated smoking areas, which may be established only in perimeter areas at least twenty (20) feet from any seating areas or concession stands. Smoking shall also be prohibited in, and within twenty (20) feet of bleachers and grandstands for use by spectators at sporting and other public events.”
6. Stand-alone bars
a. “bar” is “an establishment that is devoted to the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests on the premises and in which the gross receipts for the sale of food does not exceed 25 percent of the total gross receipts.
b. “stand-alone bar” “does not share any common entry or common entry or common indoor area with any other enclosed workplace, including a restaurant.
Regarding what kind of alcohol can be served in a “bar,” Mississippi code (67-1-51) states that an on-premises retailer’s permit (which is required to serve alcoholic beverages with more than 5 percent alcohol content) is only available to “qualified hotels, restaurants and (private)clubs (see #4, above), and to common carriers with adequate facilities for serving passengers.”
67-1-5 defines a qualified restaurant, saying: “No place shall qualify as a restaurant under this chapter unless twenty-five percent (25%) or more of the revenue derived from such place shall be from the preparation, cooking and serving of meals and not from the sale of beverages, or unless the value of food given to and consumed by customers is equal to twenty-five (25%) or more of total revenue.
THEREFORE, under these definitions, “stand-alone bars” may only serve beer and “light” wine, AND must not share common entries, indoor areas or any other enclosed workplace (which would include a kitchen or a restaurant) where smoking is prohibited.
EXCEPT (you knew that was coming, right?) if the bar is located in a “qualified resort area,” generally reserved for tourists “because of its historical, scenic or recreational facilities or attractions…”
As of Feb. 1 (according to the folks at the Mississippi ABC), the only qualified resort areas in the city of Jackson are: the Farish Street Entertainment/Historic District; the Live Oak Golf Club on Highway 49; and the area where the now-closed Brookwood Country Club was located.
Stand-alone bars located in qualified resort areas can apply for an on-premises retailer’s permit to serve alcohol over 5 percent by volume, and such bars would be exempt from the requirement of making 25 percent of their revenue from food. These establishments would be exempt from the city’s non-smoking ordinance.
Establishments in resort areas that are not stand-alone bars are not exempt from the non-smoking ordinance, except as outlined above.
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