Wednesday, July 26 2006
SANTA MONICA, CA - The Santa Monica City Attorney's Office is drafting an ordinance that would ban smoking at all outdoor restaurants, service areas, the Third Street Promenade and Farmers Markets.
The City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to direct the City Attorney's Office to draft an ordinance that would extend the city's smoking ban, which already prohibits smoking in public parks, beaches, public waiting areas and the Pier.
"All available evidence indicated, from other cities and other countries, that smoking regulations almost across the board tend to, if anything, increase business and popularity of a location," said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky.
"We're not aware of any evidence ... indicating that restricting smoking is bad for business," Radinsky said.
The proposed ordinance would ban smoking on restaurant patios, bus stops, around automated teller machines and movie theater lines. The ordinance would also apply a 20- foot smoke-free zone around non-governmental buildings.
City Councilwoman Pam O'Connor cast the lone no vote, arguing that if smoking is a health hazard, tobacco should be banned by the state, rather than have smoking regulated on a city-by-city basis, the online newspaper The LookOut reported.
"We are criminalizing people who smoke when it is still a legal substance," O'Connor said. "We are not giving them an option... If the public policy of the state is to end smoking, then the state has to do it."
Wes Hooker, owner of the Laconda del Lago restaurant on the Third Street Promenade, told the City Council the ordinance would "be a shocker and create a problem in the tourist population."
"Consider a step process so that people can catch up with it," Hooker said.
The City Council could get its first look at the ordinance sometime in September. If approved, it would take another six weeks for the ordinance to go into effect, Radinsky said.
In March, Calabasas adopted the nation's strongest outdoor smoking ban, which prohibits smoking in all public places, and smokers caught in those areas may face criminal and civil penalties.
"This certainly is a major step forward in protecting the public from the dangers of secondhand smoke," Radinsky said.
Source: NBC 4 News
Published: July 26, 2006
