New Calabasas law to snuff out smoking

BILL SPARKES/Acorn newspapers NO SMOKING—This man enjoys a cigarette at The Commons. A new law will make outdoor smoking prohibited. The city of Calabasas reviewed its secondhand smoke ordinance again at last week’s council meeting and will likely put the law into effect by March, officials said.

The purpose of the ordinance is to protect Calabasas residents from the well-documented dangers of secondhand smoke by prohibiting smoking in all public places in Calabasas, including indoor and outdoor businesses, hotels, parks, restaurants and bars— even sidewalks—where people often congregate.

“This will make this city the ‘no smoking section’ of the entire Las Virgenes corridor,” said Barry Groveman, Calabasas mayor and a leading proponent of the ordinance. “The Calabasas City Council is leading the way in protecting the right of citizens to breathe clean air.”

The city earlier identified 385 businesses in Calabasas and notified them that the ban was under consideration. The businesses also received a survey that allowed them to comment. The Calabasas Chamber of Commerce sent out information and a survey to their members as well. But of the more than 1,200 contacts that the city made seeking input on the ban, only 43 responses were received according to Maureen Tamuri, Calabasas community development director.

“In general, what we see from the survey comments (shows) very favorable (re

sponse to) the (smoking ban) here in the city,” Tamuri said. “We didn’t see any significant concerns that were raised by coalitions or groups with regard to business impacts in this area.”

Only a few restaurant owners said their businesses would be hurt by the anti-smoking ordinance, Tamuri said.

“We went through tremendous effort to reach out,” Groveman said. “I think it’s pretty telling that we don’t really see any opposition . . . I think people are responding to what our instincts are, which is, this is a city that just passed an ordinance that preserves our open space without exception, unless there’s a two-thirds vote by the public. We protect our creeks, we protect our air, and if we do that, why aren’t we protecting the personal air that we’re breathing?”

Some smokers and even nonsmokers feel the city has overstepped its boundaries with the new law.

“This is ridiculous,” said Pat Williams, a Calabasas non-smoker who is opposed to the ban. “Big brother’s watching over us.”

Hidden Hills resident Don Spar, a smoker who dines in Calabasas every morning, said secondhand smoke isn’t as dangerous as everyone says.

And to others, the new law just isn’t that big of a deal.

“I’m not going to stop smoking,” said Dan Casey, a Woodland Hills resident who frequently dines—and smokes—outdoors in Calabasas. “I usually won’t smoke around people who don’t smoke or I’d move if someone asked me to.”

But while some are against the ordinance, the only people who expressed their opinion at city council meetings were those in favor of the law.

The council postponed a decision on whether they should ticket motorists who smoke with children in a car and residents who smoke on the balcony of their apartment or townhome.

“(I am) troubled by the overreaching intrusion of us trying to regulate cars in interstate commerce and travel,” Groveman said.

According to the ordinance, exposure to secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States and kills over 52,000 nonsmokers each year, including 3,000 deaths from lung cancer. Statistics show that between 4,200 and 7,440 nonsmokers in California die from heart disease each year due to exposure to secondhand smoke.

Experts also say secondary smoke causes as many as 300,000 children in the U.S. to suffer from lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Cigarette smoke exacerbates childhood asthma and it increases the risk of acute, chronic middle ear infection in children.

The Calabasas ordinance will allow only 20 percent of hotel rooms in the city to be set aside for smokers. Officials said all Westin hotels nationwide have gone smoke-free.

The council discussed the possibility of installing smoker outposts at places such as The Commons shopping center to give employees a place to smoke. But the majority of the council wants to prohibit smoking anywhere on a business premises.

Business owners will be responsible for ensuring that all employees and patrons abide by the new ordinance.

Individual citizens can report offenders to the city, and officials will determine how to handle fines on a case-by-case basis, Calabasas City Manager Tony Coroalles said.

The council is expected to give final approval to the ordinance next month. The nonsmoking law would go into effect 30 days later.