Does smoking ban go too far?

Members of the Calabasas City Council say the purpose of their “Comprehensive SecondHand Smoke Control Ordinance” is to provide a smoke-free environment for the public, but the truth is that it is just one more step to put a total ban on the smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes in Calabasas.

The precedent ordinance draft as approved at the Feb. 1 council meeting includes provisions that will make it illegal to even smoke in a parking lot or on a public sidewalk in Calabasas. That means a person going for a walk will not be able to smoke a cigarette or pipe as they walk their dog. The view was expressed that the ordinance will and/or can also prohibit smoking on a golf course and country club property.

The ordinance does provide for “Unenclosed Areas in Shopping Mall Common Areas (“smokers’ outposts”) of 40 or fewer square feet where smoking will be permitted under certain circumstances.

The ordinance will also restrict the number of rooms in a hotel that can be designated as a room where a guest may smoke. After some discussion, the limit was finally set at not more than 20 percent of the hotel’s rooms available.

The action to establish a limit to the number of hotel rooms that can be set aside as smoking-permitted rooms is, in fact, restricting the use of the property as granted by the zoning for the property, and without due and/or just compensation for the property owner for the reduction in the value of the property as developed.

Another ordinance being proposed by members of the city council is to restrict or prohibit smoking in multi-family housing complexes. That will not only include apartment buildings, but condominiums as well and, under certain circumstances, even private-gated complexes.

The “Second-Hand Smoke Control Ordinance” is a classic example of government out of control, and elected officials pursing a personal agenda. And these people were elected to represent, serve and protect all the people. Thomas E. Hanson Calabasas