Nuclear-Free Zone Proposed for Laguna

The Laguna Beach City Council tonight will consider a proposed ordinance that would outlaw the use of nuclear weapons within the city limits.

The ordinance, proposed by council member Lida Campbell Lenney, would declare Laguna Beach a nuclear-free zone. Henceforth, Section 7.45.010 of the city’s municipal code would read: “No nuclear weapons shall be produced, transported, stored, processed, disposed of, nor used within Laguna Beach.”

Violators of the law could be slapped with a $500 fine or a six-month jail term, or both.

Lenney, a junior high school teacher recently elected to the council, said her first proposed ordinance is intended as both a protective measure and a political statement.

“If the federal government is transporting (nuclear weapons) on the coast, and they see it’s a nuclear-free zone, they would try to find a way around it. “ Lenney said, adding that she did not know of any instances of the government moving nuclear weapons through the community.

“It’s part of a grass-roots movement,” she said. “If enough local people make a statement about not wanting to have anything to do with nuclear weapons, the message will eventually reach the federal level.”

Council member Robert F. Gentry, who supports the proposal, said its passage would be “one more voice saying that nuclear weapons are too dangerous. . . . No, we are not going to single-handedly rid the world of nuclear weapons.”

One-hundred thirty-two cities and counties, including Chicago and New York City, have passed similar ordinances or resolutions, according to Jeanne Tanase, co-director of the Nuclear Free Zone Registry in Lake Elsinore, one of two offices in the country that keep track of the nuclear-free-zone movement. In California, 16 communities and counties have declared themselves nuclear-free, including Berkeley, Isla Vista, Azusa and Claremont.

No city in Orange County has adopted such an ordinance.

Last year, the Laguna Beach council issued a resolution supporting the Great Peace March and its goal of worldwide disarmament. In 1984, on Gentry’s suggestion that the city strive to prevent war rather than survive it, the council unanimously voted to eliminate all references to nuclear war from the city’s basic emergency plan.

The council is divided over Lenney’s ordinance with a three-member majority likely to vote against it.

“If a Sherman tank rolls through town with a nuke, what do you do --give them a $500 ticket?” council member Dan Kenney said. “It’s essentially unenforceable.”

Mayor Neil J. Fitzpatrick said he could probably support a resolution endorsing the nuclear-free idea but would oppose writing it into law.

Council member Martha Collison said she had not yet studied the proposal thoroughly, but probably would not support it “as written.”