The Manhattan Beach City Council directed the city staff to draft ordinances extending the city’s smoking ban to multi-unit residences and requiring tobacco retailers to have a license Tuesday night.
Currently, the city’s Breathe Free Manhattan Beach law limits smoking, including e-cigarettes, to private residential property, some hotel rooms, and cars. When the existing ban was enacted last June 17, the council asked staff to look into the possibility of extending the ban to also prohibit smoking in multi-unit housing.
Fifteen percent of housing in Manhattan Beach has two or more units, according to the staff report.
Councilmember Amy Howorth said that she didn’t want to include multi-unit complexes initially because she “was afraid it would be overreaching.”
“But I heard owners say, ‘We’re all for this,’” she said.
According to the report, 16 cities in California have banned smoking in 100 percent of their housing units, most recently Culver City, in October.
Sona Coffee, the city’s environmental programs manager, told the council that federal and state courts have ruled that there is no legal right to smoke and that smoking was labeled a nuisance in California.
Several residents and representatives of organizations such as the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network spoke in favor of extending the ban.
John Schmidtt, a Manhattan Beach resident and ambassador for the Cancer Action Network, encouraged the council to extend the ban.
“Virtually every family is touched in some way by cancer,” said Schmidtt, who shared that he had survived cancer twice. “Smoking is a leading cause.”
Including multi-unit housing in the ordinance “may well prevent future cancer diagnoses,” he said.
Diane Wallace, the president of the Manhattan Village Homeowners Association Board, said that an extended ordinance would help them deal with complaints about neighbors smoking.
“We receive complaints from residents every year,” she said. “We have residents with fans in windows and patios blowing out smoke.”
Sara Hunter, a Manhattan Village resident with exercise-induced asthma, said she gave up on trying to reason with her neighbor, who routinely smokes on her patio, five years ago when her neighbor became hostile. Instead, she uses a rescue inhaler twice a day.
“Usually I’m the last person for government regulation,” she said. “But I’m grateful that I’m not alone in this anymore.”
The idea of requiring tobacco retail licenses was brought up by Lisa Santora, chief medical officer of the Beach Cities Health District. Santora said similar laws in other cities have created revenue and help keep tobacco away from minors. The council voted unanimously to look at possible legislation.
The issue of curbing smoking downtown was also raised, with some people saying that there needed to be more education and publicity about the initiative. There are currently 50 signs posted throughout the city, Coffee said, and so far, no citations have been issued. Mayor Wayne Powell said that he received complaints that there wasn’t enough signage, but he also heard concerns about littering downtown with signs.
Kelly Stroman, the executive director of the Downtown Business Association, said that she was in favor of more signage, especially for visitors to the town.
“The pollution of cigarette butts outweighs a little sign pollution,” she said.
The council ordered staff to install more signs downtown, including the universal no-smoking symbol for those who don’t speak English.
Stroman’s concerns about cigarette litter was echoed by others. Coffee said that the Surfrider Foundation had offered to donate 20 ashtrays with labels informing smokers about the law. The ashtrays were not addressed in the motion that passed, however, with some councilmembers concerned that they might send mixed messages.
Another issue that was discussed during the meeting but not mentioned specifically in the motion was the possibility of allowing large companies with their own campuses to designate smoking areas. Several companies, including Manhattan Beach Studios and Northrop Grumman, contacted the city with concerns that employees who live outside Manhattan Beach and take public transportation have no place to smoke. ER
