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Since Montgomery College instituted a ban on all tobacco products on campus in August, students stepping off school property to grab a smoke have become a nuisance in neighboring Rockville communities, some residents say.

The college said it will work with the communities to find a solution.

The ban prohibits all forms of tobacco, including cigarettes and chewing tobacco, and forces students and faculty to go elsewhere to smoke. Many stand along Rockville Pike or Mannakee Street, but some walk through a break in the fence that leads to Princeton Place, a cul-de-sac in the College Gardens neighborhood that abuts the campus.

Mark Pierzchala, a former president of the College Gardens Civic Association and mayoral candidate last year, said the community is up in arms. The civic association, which meets just twice a year, took a formal stand against the smoking ban when it met in November.

"We want the ban repealed," he said. "It's more than just a few neighbors [complaining], it's almost the whole block. It's not just the smoking, it's the behavior."

Dr. Judy E. Ackerman, vice president and provost, said there is no possibility of the smoking ban being repealed.

"That's a bit challenging," she said. "The purpose of the ban is to create a healthy campus and repealing it would be back-stepping."

Some neighbors have reported seeing both small and large groups of smokers using foul language, loitering, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol.

Judith A. Pretka, who lives on Princeton Place with her husband Walter, is fed up.

"It really is becoming a dump," she said. "There are so many cigarette butts and cigarette packets and Starbucks cups left there. With all the property taxes we pay, it's disgusting that we have to live in Montgomery College's parking lot."

Pierzchala agreed, saying the school has simply externalized the problem.

"Montgomery College at one time tried to close the hole in the fence, but I'm not sure that's a viable option," he said.

At a use permit hearing in November for the planned campus science center, the Rockville Planning Commission required that the college make the hole in the fence more bicycle friendly.

"I don't think the college can actually close that hole anymore," Pierzchala said.

After some neighbors complained earlier this year, the college responded by placing trash cans and ash trays at the fence, Pierzchala said.

Ackerman said the college is working with neighborhood leadership and the City of Rockville to find ways to dissolve the issue.

"When people work together, they can find solutions," she said. "[The smoking ban] does affect the neighbors, so we're trying to reduce the impact there."

Many of the students who go to Princeton Place to smoke wish they could stay on campus, but say they are trying to make the best of the situation.

Between classes, crowds of smokers as big as 25 or 30 swell up on the street.

"I understand people have health issues," said Maisa Martyak, a 20-year-old at the school. "I miss our old smoking spots."

Montgomery College's smoking policy prior to the ban going into effect was that there was no smoking within 25 feet of buildings. The school also provided designated smoking areas to try to contain the litter.

Ackerman said students were not abiding by the 25-foot rule.

In 2001, the college received funding from the Maryland State Cigarette Restitution Fund to support the Healthy Campus Program, which bans tobacco products. The program also receives grants from four other anti-smoking groups, as well as funds for other health- and safety-oriented programs.

Of a group of four students who were gathered on Princeton Place last Thursday around 1:45 p.m., only two were smoking. They said after the college forced them off campus to smoke, they began meeting other outcast smokers on Princeton Place and Mannakee Street and soon formed friendships.

Now, some walk to Princeton Place even if they don't want to smoke, just to be with their friends.

"I understand why [the college] did it, but really it's just moving the problem," said Andy Goldstrom, a 22-year-old sophomore. "Now residents have to deal with us, and that's not fair to them."

He added that having to walk off campus to smoke is why he is always 10 minutes late for class.

More students arrived and before long the group of four had grown to eight.

"For the sake of these neighbors, having a place on campus to smoke would be better," said Chris Palmer, 22, a second-year English major. "People litter. It's not good for the neighbors."