Wiscasset’s Ordinance Review Committee got started Monday on a possible outdoor smoking ban on at least some town-owned properties. Members brought up parking lots as a likely exception.

“We (wouldn’t be) a tourist-friendly town if we’re going to bust someone for smoking in a parking lot,” Chairman Karl Olson said.

Selectmen directed the committee to draft an ordinance after then-Parks and Recreation Director Todd Souza raised the idea in February. The ordinance would take a town vote, Town Planner Ben Averill said.

Averill told committee members, he wanted them to get the ball rolling but wait on proposing anything until the new parks and recreation director is hired. The director should have input because department sites are involved, Averill said. So should Police Chief Jeff Lange, about enforcement, Averill said. According to selectmen’s Feb. 21 minutes Averill shared with the committee, outdoor sites discussed included Wiscasset Community Center, the Superintendent of Schools Office and Sherman Park. Wiscasset Middle High School was also discussed at the February meeting, but smoking is already banned there, Averill said.

Member Al Cohen asked about adding locations, including the Sunken Garden. “It would be a crime to have someone in there smoking away, when people are trying to enjoy the beauty of it.”

ORC members reviewed related ordinances Averill collected from Portland and Westbrook. Averill also provided a February 2010, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention summary of state laws on secondhand smoke.

Also Monday, the panel discussed Town Manager Marian Anderson’s May 8 letter to it and the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission, about selectmen’s May 2 decision to request the 2015 historic preservation ordinance be repealed. “Doing away with it is not amending it, so I’m not sure we’re involved,” Olson said.

Averill said he would explore that question.

Member Jason Putnam commented on the selectmen’s decision. “We went through the trouble of getting (the ordinance). It’s going through growing pains,” he said.

“That was the direction the board gave this committee. (It) was to work on this repeal language,” Averill responded. Repeal would take a joint public hearing of the preservation commission and the Wiscasset Planning Board, and a town vote, according to Anderson’s letter.