No smoking: Local condo tower fought to clear the air
N&R Greensboro
By Kathryn K. Hatfield
20 December 2015

Though we have practiced law together our entire legal careers, my husband and I have rarely had the opportunity to work together on a legal issue that we have both felt so passionately about. Having lived at the Hampshire, a 14-story condominium at 1101 North Elm St. in Greensboro, for 16 years, we became personally aware of the issue of secondhand smoke in multi-unit buildings that can easily travel through ducts, common areas and the infrastructure to nonsmokers’ units.

Along with other concerned residents, our condominium association joined hands in a massive campaign to eliminate this negative impact upon the health, safety and well-being of Hampshire residents.

In late August, residents and owners expressed a desire for all spaces in the Hampshire high-rise to be smoke-free and asked the association board to investigate how to accomplish this.

With the assistance of association attorney Jim Slaughter of Rossabi Black Slaughter, the board put to a vote by the owners an amendment to the Hampshire Declaration of Condominium that prohibits smoking everywhere on the property, including not only all indoor and outdoor common areas but also inside individual condominium units.

Because the Hampshire governing documents require a 75 percent affirmative vote by the ownership to pass such an amendment, success was no easy task.

At our Nov. 16 meeting, Hampshire homeowners passed this amendment by a 77 percent vote. This vote speaks volumes to the dedication of our homeowners to a healthy environment, to the hard work and commitment of our association, and to the changing tide with regard to smoking in general.

My husband and I are proud to have been a small part of such a major accomplishment. Smoke-free policies are becoming the standard for multi-unit housing across the country. The North Carolina legislature has specifically found that “secondhand smoke has been proven to cause cancer, heart disease and asthma attacks among smokers and nonsmokers” and that “there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.” I am so pleased that the Hampshire is now one of the first privately and individually owned residential buildings in our area to declare itself smoke-free.

I encourage other condominium associations in the area that are concerned about the negative effects of secondhand smoke on the health, safety and well-being of their residents to follow suit.

Kathryn Hatfield, JD, is president, the Hampshire.


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