More apartments are snuffing out smoking

Robbie Zanko hasn’t smelled any of her own cigarettes since she opened her closet 28 years ago and was overpowered by the smell on her clothes.

“I couldn’t stand it,” she said. “I quit.”

Now Zanko, 60, doesn’t have to smell other people’s smoke, either. Last month the apartment building where she lives, Waterstone Place in Minnetonka, adopted a nonsmoking policy that covers all 164 units, common areas and outdoor grounds.

Zanko said she’s never allowed smoking in her apartment but now has an extra measure of comfort knowing she won’t be exposed to other residents’ secondhand smoke.

“I remember sitting out on my balcony last year and being able to smell someone smoking,” she said. “Even if you can’t smell it, there’s toxins in the air.”

The number of apartment buildings with nonsmoking policies — while small — is growing, according to Live Smoke Free, a program of the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota funded by a Minnesota Department of Health grant.

The group has identified about 280 multiunit apartment complexes with at least one nonsmoking building, said Carissa Duke, community outreach coordinator for the organization. About a half dozen housing co-operatives and condominiums also have gone smoke free. All told, the smoke-free buildings account for about 2 percent of the state’s rental properties, she said.

Waterstone Place is the fourth area smoke-free apartment building managed by Steven Scott Management, which handles 62 buildings in the Twin Cities. Earlier this year it began renting units at the Pointe at River Crossing, a new smoke-free apartment building that is part of a complex near W. 7th St. in St. Paul.

Steven Scott expects to establish non-smoking policies at a few other area properties in the next year, according to Brenda Hvamsbal, director of marketing. One will be the Ellipse, a 133-unit building planned for the corner of France Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park.

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