Terry Black’s Barbecue is being sued by its neighbors over barbecue smoke, as reported by The Statesman. The 15 people who filed the lawsuit say that the constant smoke from the restaurant’s pits is "adversely affecting Plaintiffs' use and enjoyment of their property." The plaintiffs are asking for compensation for the permanent injury they say the smoke has produced. All of them allege that the restaurant’s negligence has resulted or will result in medical care expenses, physical pain, mental anguish and physical impairments. 
 
 And this isn't the first time Terry Black's has fielded an outcry. In response to neighbors earlier complaints about the restaurant’s smoke, owner Mike Black reworked the pits and switched his smoking schedule. 
 
 This spring, Austin city council member Sabino Renteria proposed a regulation code where restaurants wouldn’t be allowed to use wood or charcoal grills within one hundred feet of residential property. A video of the smoke from Terry Black’s was shared at a city council meeting as evidence to support the change. As part of the stakeholder process, the City Council Committee on Economic Development voted against the potential code, but it is set to appear again before the Health and Human Services Committee on Monday, August 3. 
 
 Eater has reached out to Terry Black’s Barbecue for comments. Watch this space for updates. 

 Conservative Rush Limbaugh told listeners that liberal Austin has moved toward wiping out local barbecue joints. 
 
 On his July 28, 2015, program, the commentator read from a web post stating the Austin City Council in April 2015 "passed a preliminary plan" restricting smoke from barbecue restaurants. Limbaugh said the web post went on to say the contemplated requirement that restaurants install costly devices to diffuse smoke led a business expert to tell council members "these restrictions will certainly kill all but the largest barbecue restaurants in Austin." 
 
 "It is effectively a ban on barbecue restaurants in a town known for its barbecue," Limbaugh echoed. What "kind of an absurd requirement is this anyway?" he added. 
 
 Smoke pouring from commercial barbecue smokers has been a hot Austin topic, in particular pitting a new South Austin restaurant against nearby homeowners who say its smoke wafting their way has reduced the value of their homesteads. 
 
 And did the council adopt a plan amounting to a ban on ‘cue restaurants? 
 
 Citing a website 
 
 Limbaugh, according to a transcript of his program, recited as fact a July 25, 2015, web post on IAmATexan.com, headlined "Austin City Council Votes to Ban BBQ Restaurants." 
 
 That post said the council had passed a preliminary plan to restrict smoke from barbecue restaurants, continuing: 
 
 "The city council’s current proposal will require smoke diffusers and will also limit the amount of time that restaurants can smoke. These restrictions will require at least $100,000 in extra investments for most barbecue restaurants as they will be forced to buy extra smokers along with severely expensive diffusers, and in some cases will have to lease or purchase more property. 
 
 "One business expert told council members that these restrictions will certainly kill all but the largest barbecue restaurants in Austin. 
 
 "It is effectively a ban on barbecue restaurants in a town known for its barbecue." 
 
 We didn’t connect with the unnamed authors of that post. Nor did our query to Limbaugh draw a reply. 
 
 But Austin American-Statesman news stories, City of Austin documents and responses by a city spokeswoman indicate that after the council talked about imposing controls to reduce unwanted smoke from restaurant smokers, members directed the city manager, Marc Ott, to gather public input and make recommendations. As of late July 2015, city spokeswoman Alicia Dean said, one City Council committee had recommended no citywide restrictions while another council panel, slated to reconvene Aug. 3, 2015, had not made a recommendation. 
 
 Limbaugh’s claim, Dean said, is not true. 
 
 Blowing smoke in Austin 
 
 Let’s scrape up the details--which extend to the city pulling together this 2015 document delivering a breakdown of Austin barbecue trailers and restaurants and the hours each one operates a smoker (around the clock to three times daily "for flavor" to not at all). 
 
 After Terry Black’s Barbecue opened, on Barton Springs Road just south of Lady Bird Lake, nearby neighbors objected to smoke from its pit blowing into their yards and homes--not every day, residents initially said, but often enough depending on prevailing winds. Mike Black said in a January 2015 statement to the American-Statesman that he intended to work with residents to address concerns. In July 2015, residents filed a lawsuit against the restaurant. 
 
 Credit for publicly suggesting the city regulate smoke from restaurants belongs to Austin City Council Member Sabino "Pio" Renteria, whose idea to require smoke mitigation wasn’t embraced by pitmasters who said purchasing expensive "smoke scrubbers" could kill barbecue stands inside the city limits. "It will force 99 percent of Austin BBQ places to either close or move out of town," John Mueller of John Mueller Meat Co. said in a statement. 
 
 In March 2015, Renteria said he was revising his original proposal to have it apply only to restaurants and mobile food vendors within 100 feet of residential property—down from 150 feet. He also said he wanted to look at other smoke-mitigating options besides scrubbers. 
 
 At a March 31, 2015, work session, council members questioned how regulating smoke emissions would affect small businesses and longtime businesses, and whether there might be a way to target regulations at new businesses or ones that had been the subject of complaints. 
 
 The Statesman reported that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2014 received two complaints about odor and smoke coming from Terry Black’s Barbecue, and one complaint in 2014 and another in 2015 about an East Austin establishment, la Barbecue. In all cases, the agency determined the odor and smoke were not nuisances subject to state intervention, commission spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said, adding that a nuisance would have to "be injurious to or adversely affect human health, welfare, animal life, vegetation or property" or "interfere with normal use and enjoyment of animal life, vegetation, or property." 
 
 On April 2, 2015, council members voted 9-2 to gather input from neighbors and businesses in the lead-up to a "possible" writing of smoke-control rules. The issue was to go first to the Economic Opportunity and Health and Human Services committees, both consisting of council members. 
 
 Specifically, the council’s resolution said members were initiating a possible amendment to the city code to address smoke from cookers, restaurants and trucks and their impact on residences with provisions to be considered including a requirement that restaurants and mobile vendors using a wood- or charcoal-burning stove or grill and located within 100 feet of a property used or zoned as a residence "take appropriate action to mitigate the impact of smoke emissions" on the lives of nearby residents "by relocating smoke-emitting equipment" or "installing smoke-mitigating devices." The resolution also directed Ott to gather input from affected residents, business owners and others before presenting recommendations to the committees by July 31, 2015. 
 
 Committee recommendations 
 
 On May 11, 2015, the Economic Opportunity committee voted 4-0 to not pursue a city ordinance either requiring establishments to install smoke-clearing devices or to regulate nuisances. Instead, the members said that city officials, in conjunction with the state commission, should review concerns case by case. Members acted after taking public comments and fielding a May 4, 2015, city presentation indicating that none of 54 restaurant barbecue smokers in the city already had smoke scrubbers. 
 
 The other council committee also gathered. But it hadn’t made a recommendation by the day Limbaugh suggested Austin barbecue was about to vamoose. 
 
 Then again, Ora Houston, the Austin City Council member who chairs the Health and Human Services panel, earlier made the motion against the city limiting barbecue smoke by ordinance that was adopted by the Economic Opportunity committee. By phone, Houston responded to our inquiry by saying she continues to prefer that the city address smoke concerns one by one. "I would not be a supporter of a motion to have a citywide ban on barbecue smoke," Houston said. "That’s what the city is known for, music and barbecue." 
 
 Our ruling 
 
 Limbaugh said Austin is "effectively" imposing "a ban on barbecue restaurants." 
 
 In early 2015, there was worry that a mandate that barbecue restaurants limit smoke from smokers would have that impact. However, the council didn’t adopt such a regulation and we sniffed out no factual indication it’s poised to do so. Before Limbaugh spoke, the latest panel to make a recommendation suggested city staff tackle complaints one by one--without a change in law. 
 
 When a claim is not so and seems ridiculous, we see smoke. Pants on Fire! 
 
 PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim. 
 
 Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. 

 While barbecue may smell delicious, living next to a barbecue joint is no picnic for some. Since the beginning of the year, the Austin city council has been embroiled in a battle over whether the city should regulate smoke from barbecue joints after complaints from neighbors that proximity to the pits was affecting their health. But this week, the city came down squarely on the side of Texas barbecue. 
 
 Related Content Three International Twists on BBQ 
 
 Back in January, neighbors of local favorites Terry Black’s Barbecue and La Barbecue filed complaints with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. While easy access to tasty barbecue might sound like a perk, the residents said that the smoke from the barbecue trailers was so strong that they were having health problems and were unable to use their backyards. 
 
 No matter how good the barbecue may smell, too much smoke is definitely bad for your health. According to the World Health Organization, more than four million people die every year from illnesses that can be attributed to the household air pollution that comes with cooking with solid fuels like wood and charcoal. In March, Austin Councilmember Sabino “Pio” Renteria proposed new citywide regulations on barbecue smoke that would require restaurants and food trucks to either install smoke scrubbers to clean the air at the source or move their smokers farther away from neighbors, write James Barrigan and Andra Lim for the Austin American-Statesman. 
 
 But restaurant owners said that buying expensive air purifying equipment would put many mom-and-pop joints out of business when other less pricey methods like moving smoke pits would have a similar effect. “To make all BBQ places put this in would crush the industry and put a lot of people out of work,” Skeeter Miller, President of the Austin Restaurant Association told local NBC affiliate KXAN News. 
 
 Luckily for Austin’s barbecue-lovers, the proposal never made it out of committee in the barbecue-loving city. Earlier this week, representatives from the council’s Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously against pursuing a citywide policy to tone down the barbecue smoke, writes Lim. While there won’t be a citywide policy on the issue, people who want to report problems with smoke from neighboring restaurants can still call 311. 
 
 In the meantime, the owners of Terry Black’s and La Barbecue have made some changes to how they prepare their barbecue, including cutting back on how much wood they use and where they position their smokers. “We’re not here intentionally trying to ruin a neighborhood,” LeAnn Mueller, the owner of La Barbecue, told Lim. 
 
 h/t Vice Munchies 

 AUSTIN (KXAN) — The city of Austin’s Health and Human Services Committee said a recommendation for a city-wide ordinance on barbecue smoke will not come from them. 
 
 In March, Councilmember “Pio” Renteria introduced a resolution to implement a code amendment to mitigate the effects of smoke emissions from restaurants and mobile food vendors near residentially zoned areas. On April 2, the Austin City Council passed the smoke emissions resolution which directed the city manager to conduct hearings to gather stakeholder input. 
 
 The amendment would require restaurants and mobile food vendors that use wood/charcoal burning stoves or grills and are located within 100 feet of homes to reduce the amount of smoke coming from their restaurant. 
 
 “That was meant to ensure that a potential ordinance would avoid creating undue burdens on business owners who are good neighbors and respectful of their communities. From this Councilmember Renteria hoped to ensure everyone’s voice would be heard,” said David Chincanchan, who is Renteria’s policy aide. 
 
 On Monday, Health and Human Services decided to not move the amendment to city council and determined complaints will be taken individually and then action will be taken per business if enough complaints are taken. 
 
 The Economic Opportunity Committee took up the item in May and made its recommendations. 

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 Austin, Texas, is famous for its barbecue, but being a city known for smoked meat stuff—brisket, pulled pork, ribs—comes at a high price. If you happen to live in Austin, you may very well live downwind of a barbecue joint. And the sultry, mesquite embrace emitted from the meat equivalent of a forest fire? Well, it might just be driving you batshit crazy. Or slowly transmogrifying you into Bobby Flay. Who can say for sure? 
 
 What we can say is this: Being driven crazy by the smoke is exactly what happened to the people who live down the road from Terry Black’s Barbecue and La Barbecue, both located in Austin. These neighbors have the good fortune of having some pretty kickass barbecue a stone’s throw away, but they say that living next to a barbecue joint isn’t all just roses and fat caps. They filed complaints with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stating that the smoke was affecting their health—not in a good way, like unfettered meat perfume might—and they could no longer enjoy sitting outside in their backyards. 
 
 The complaints led Austin Council Member Sabino “Pio” Renteria to propose barbecue smoke regulations that would require food establishments—restaurants and food trucks—to install smoke-mitigating devices or to move equipment that emits smoke so it doesn’t bother the neighbors. Massive, hovering Brita filters come to mind. 
 
 But Austin, being the pro-barbecue town that it is, shot the smoke-regulation proposal down: Two committees of the Austin Council considered the proposal, and neither went for it. The Health and Human Services Committee voted 4–0 on Thursday to not pursue a citywide policy that would mitigate barbecue smoke, as did the Economic Opportunity Committee in May. 
 
 So, instead of a citywide rule, complaints will be dealt with individually. Skeeter Miller, President of the Austin Restaurant Association, told the local NBC affiliate KXAN that, “To make all BBQ places put this in would crush the industry and put a lot of people out of work.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Terry Black’s Barbecue says they have made changes to cut down on fumes. And LeAnn Mueller of La Barbecue said the food trailer moved its barbecue pits so they are about 150 feet away from neighbors instead of 30 feet away. 
 
 “We’re not here intentionally trying to ruin a neighborhood,” Mueller said. 
 
 Even Council Member Renteria, who proposed the regulations, says he has “no problem” with the outcome of his proposal: “Food establishments realized there are ‘simple things’ they can do to be good neighbors,” he said. “My intention was never to go out and have any of this affect any of the businesses that have been in good standing with the community.” 
 
 So, what have we learned? 
 
 If you want to retain the majority of your extremities, you probably shouldn’t talk shit about barbecue in Austin. And some folk won’t ever be content, no matter how much free meat perfume you smother them with.
– Austin is a barbecue town, and anyone who lives there "may very well live downwind of a barbecue joint," notes a post at Munchies. That may sound great, but for those who live too close, the smoke can be a real problem. After neighbors complained, a city council member floated the idea of regulating the smoke, and this week, the neighbors got their answer: "The city came down squarely on the side of Texas barbecue," writes the Smithsonian. Specifically, the idea of regulation effectively died in committee, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Instead, residents will have to be content with calling 311, and the city will deal with complaints on a case-by-case basis. “To make all BBQ places put this in would crush the industry and put a lot of people out of work,” the president of the Austin Restaurant Association tells KXAN, referring to pricey air-purifying gear. Still, local joints are pledging to play nice and to make adjustments—the placement of smokers, how much wood is used, etc—when neighbors complain. Don't expect the volatile issue to go away quietly, however. (Even Rush Limbaugh got involved, though he got his facts wrong, according to Politifact.) Neighbors have filed suit against Terry's Black Barbecue, complaining about potential health risks and the inability to enjoy their own property, notes Eater. As a result, a council member on the Health and Human Services panel says the city may have to revisit the issue down the road. (Meanwhile, if a backyard BBQ is in your future, consider marinating with beer.)