Smoke will no longer be floating out of the windows of any vehicles with a Cumming logo on the side.

The Cumming City Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday to ban smoking in municipal vehicles.

“We’ve got smoke-free buildings so we should have smoke-free vehicles,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said.

The effort came about due to the health concern that secondhand smoke can be just as dangerous as smoking a cigarette, he said.

City employees can still smoke, but only in designated areas.

Cumming Police Sgt. Casey Tatum said the city’s policy specifically names police vehicles, reinforcing the department’s current practice.

“We have a departmental policy that says [officers] can’t smoke in their vehicles,” Tatum said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council unanimously approved two variances for a senior residence community at North Corners Parkway.

The variances will increase the number of units per acre and lower the parking space requirement, since many residents do not own vehicles.

One condition required a traffic light to be installed at the intersection with Hwy. 20.

Council also authorized staff to seek bids for construction of a future Department of Driver Services facility on Pilgrim Mill Road.