If you go What: Boulder County’s Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee discusses possible rules and regulations revisions When: 6:30 p.m Thursday Where: Third floor hearing room in the Boulder County Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder Info: The meeting’s full agenda, including a staff memo about potential rules changes, is available at bit.ly/1LA5eI3

Should smoking be prohibited on all of Boulder County’s parks and open space lands?

Should the use, possession or distribution of marijuana be banned on those county-owned properties?

Should Boulder County rangers be authorized to ticket people who have confined their animals to prolonged stays in vehicles or trailers at county park and open space areas during extreme heat or cold?

Those are just three of the possible changes to current county rules and regulations expected to be considered by the Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee on Thursday night.

Bevin Carithers, a Parks and Open Space Department resource protection supervisor, said present county regulations are silent about smoking tobacco on open space properties.

“People are allowed to smoke anywhere” outdoors on tens of thousands of acres of county-owned lands, Carithers said, and Boulder County staff has suggested the advisory panel consider whether that policy should be changed.

Meanwhile, although Colorado law prohibits the open smoking or other consumption of marijuana products in public areas, county rangers cannot cite people for violating a state statute, Carithers said.

Revising Boulder County’s parks and open space rules would give rangers the authority to issue summonses to people using or distributing marijuana on those lands — as well as to anyone caught growing marijuana on county properties.

Nor do present county regulations allow rangers to cite people visiting parks and open space areas when they endanger the health or lives of dogs or other animals by shutting them up in vehicles or trailers during temperature extremes — something a new regulation would address, Carithers said.

The county staff also has recommended higher fines for people found guilty of violating the parks and open space rules and regulations.

For many types of violations, the fine for a first offense would increase from the present $50 to $75. The fine for a second offense would go from $100 to $150, and for a third or subsequent offense, a fine of at least $300.

Meanwhile, the committee may consider whether to change the hours parks and open space areas are open to the public, from the present sunrise-to-sunset openings to between one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset.

Among other potential rules changes the county staff has suggested the advisory panel discuss:

• Prohibiting the recreational use of drones on county open space. That would, however, leave the door open for writing policies allowing such unmanned aircraft to make overflights for scientific research or open-space management purposes, if authorized in advance by the county.

• Restricting when and where charcoal grill fires would be allowed, and how they’d have to be overseen by park users. One proposed rule, however, would say that propane gas grills would be permitted in designated picnicking and campground locations, if “used in a safe manner.”

• Prohibiting the use of seines, cast nets or live traps “on any body of water within county Parks or Open Space areas,” including those where fishing is otherwise allowed.

Any rules and regulations revisions the advisory committee recommends would next have to be approved by the Board of County Commissioners before taking effect.

John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc