The wheels are in motion for a precedent-setting smoking ban at the Centennial affordable-housing complex.

Last night the Centennial homeowners’ association agreed to draft a cigarette-smoking ban for the privately owned complex and its 92 units. The board voted five to one in favor of having its lawyer, Fred Peirce, draft a ban for the complex, if he thinks such a ban is legal.

A ban, if enacted, will not affect the 149 adjacent Centennial rental apartments.

This emergency meeting came in the wake of a fire at the Castle Ridge housing complex last month that destroyed 10 apartments. Fire officials determined that it was caused by a smoldering cigarette left in a flower pot.

Centennial has had two fires start on the property from cigarettes in flower pots. One did substantial damage to a condo last fall, while another last month was extinguished by firefighters before it did damage.

A few cynical homeowners at the meeting called for a ban on flower pots instead of cigarettes.

“I’ve never seen this many people here, and I’ve been here seven years,” said Centennial’s property manager, Ivan Perrin, at the beginning of the controversial meeting. There were 20 people present in the basement of the Pitkin County Library (including seven voting homeowners’ board members, two reporters and the property manager).

Homeowners’ association president Ed Cross said that Aspen Fire Marshal Ed Van Walraven recommended he ban smoking completely at Centennial, because more people are killed in fires started by cigarettes than any other fires. Cross said smoking at the complex “is no longer an annoyance. It is a safety issue.”

After their fire, Castle Ridge’s owners banned smoking property-wide. But the residents at Castle Ridge are all renters, while 92 condominiums at Centennial are privately owned by residents, causing some — smokers and non — to cry foul.

“You’re infringing on my civil liberties,” said Alison Danforth, a Centennial unit owner who also works as a financial assistant for this newspaper. “It’s a slippery slope. What’s next?”

“You’re gonna have a hell of a lawsuit on your hands,” she added.

Cross cited a legal ruling out of Golden that banned smoking in a privately owned quadroplex. That judge’s ruling, Cross said, set a precedent that the constant fear of a possible fire caused by one cigarette-smoking neighbor violated the non-smokers “right of quiet enjoyment.”

Based on that precedent, Cross said, “I think we can ban smoking. But it’s whether we want to or not.”

Homeowner Eric Pekkala urged the board members to be cautious of pushing the envelope on personal privacy laws.

“The precedent is going to be us,” he said. “This is a big thing.”

The lone dissenting vote came from board member Andrea Carson, who cited concerns that smokers would secretly smoke inside with their windows shut if a ban was put in place, posing more fire danger (and more damage to resale value of the units) than in the current situation. One board member abstained from voting.

A motion to ban smoking but provide quitting assistance and counseling to Centennial’s smokers was shot down.

“This is just going to the attorney,” Cross emphasized. “It’s not a done deal.”

And many questions remain. Concerned residents asked if the board would ban smoking marijuana or cigars, if neighbors would be asked to rat one another out, and how they would police smoking on Centennial’s grounds.

“The whole thing is an enforcement nightmare,” Cross admitted.

But, he assured residents they would be well informed as they move forward with the possible ban, and invited to take place in forums like last night’s meeting.

Board member Carson agreed.

“It’s such a big issue,” she said, “that it deserves to have its own flyer.”

andrew@aspendailynews.com