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Home > What's New > California Beach Ban
California Beach Ban
Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2004
By Michael Moretti No longer allowed inside restaurants and bars, smokers in the Golden State always had the great outdoors. But not for long. In some communities, the open air will soon be off limits.
Santa Monica is aiming to ban smokes from its beaches. This week, the City Council gave final approval on an ordinance prohibiting smoking on the beach and at bus stops and restricting it to designated places on the city's historic pier.
This comes in the wake of a statewide law banning smoking within 20 feet of a building entrance or operable window. Smoking has been banned indoors in virtually all public buildings across the state since 1998.
A rash of other communities have already banished smokers from the sand. In Orange County in March, the San Clemente City Council voted for a stop to shore smoking, and in October, Solana Beach in San Diego County cleared puffers off its beach.
The Los Angeles County City Council has approved a similar ban, which combined with Santa Monica's would render a 13-mile stretch of coastline on the Pacific along Route 1 smoke-free. Smokers would have to extinguish their cigars, pipes and cigarettes before entering the beach's air space or face a $250 fine.
Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, who has promised to sign the legislation, said the measure would eliminate the health concerns involved with smoking, reduce the risk of fire on the wood pier, and cut down on litter and pollution.
Business owners and residents, as well as several council members, argued against the ban saying that the wind and outdoors negates any health risks of secondhand smoke -- the stated reasoning behind the prohibition of indoor smoking, according to a report in the Santa Monica Mirror. In addition, restaurant and tourism business owners on the pier argued that the ban would further strain a long dilapidated market that was just starting to pick up.
The legislation eventually passed with a 4 to 2 vote; it requires a second vote of approval in approximately two weeks before enactment.
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