Calabasas wants to be smoke-free city

The Calabasas City Council says it wants to move forward with its ban on outdoor smoking in the city, including no smoking in places such as outdoor restaurant patios and other business areas. The city council even discussed the possibility of banning smoking on the balconies of multi-family housing units.

Council members expect to discuss the no-smoking ordinance within the upcoming months. They will even consider ticketing motorists who smoke with children inside their vehicles.

The following steps are being considered:

•Smoking would be prohibited within 20 feet of the entrance to places where smoking is prohibited. Parks, plazas and other outdoor gathering areas would be targeted.

•Smoking at a job site that’s outdoors, such as a construction site, would be prohibited.

•The city would regulate the ratio of smoking to non-smoking rooms in hotels, which currently is not governed by state law.

•The city would step up its regulation of tobacco retailers, not only by requesting age identification from those purchasing tobacco products, but by eliminating tobacco product placement in storefronts.

•The city would add a regulatory fee to all tobacco sales to pay for the cost of picking up tobacco-related trash.

“There’s lots of evidence that a huge fraction of the litter that’s collected on the beach and elsewhere is tobacco butts,” said Michael Colantuono, city attorney.

At last week’s city council meeting, several people from the public spoke in favor of the ban, while nobody spoke against it.

—Michael Picarella