Novi, MI Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

The city council adopted this rule after finding that the EPA classifies secondhand tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen and that Michigan's Clean Indoor Act does not fully protect employees and visitors to municipal buildings. Sec. 22-101 defines "smoking" broadly, covering the lighting, inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying of any lit cigar, cigarette, tobacco, weed, plant, or other combustible substance. The interior ban reaches private offices, meeting and conference rooms, cafeterias, break rooms, lounges, restrooms, hallways, stairways, and enclosed entrances of any building the city owns, leases, or operates.

That prohibition then extends outward 100 feet from every entrance to those buildings, meaning smokers cannot light up on the sidewalk, steps, or parking lot right outside Novi's municipal offices unless the city manager has posted that specific outdoor spot as an approved smoking area. The city clerk must post the smoking prohibition at every public entrance to city buildings and give notice to employees through individual office postings, but a missing sign does not excuse a violation. The ordinance is written as supplemental to the Michigan Clean Indoor Act; wherever a state law, rule, or another city ordinance is more restrictive, that stricter standard controls.

Because the rule is tied to city-owned, leased, or operated property, it does not reach a restaurant patio, a private office building, or an ordinary park unless a specific city facility there is separately covered.