Tough Anti-Smoking Plan Qualifies for Del Mar Ballot

Del Mar voters will get a chance to adopt what is described as the toughest anti-smoking law in the nation--a measure that would ban smoking in all public places, indoors and outdoors, including beaches, sidewalks and city streets--the City Council decided.

In a unanimous vote late Monday, the council formally placed the measure on the November municipal ballot.

While opponents contend that the measure would be nearly impossible to enforce, supporters of the initiative, who garnered signatures from 10% of the city’s voters to qualify it for the ballot, heralded the proposal as a necessary step toward establishing “a smokeless society.”

The measure would ban smoking in all public gathering places such as parks, restaurants, stores and offices. Three “designated smoking areas” would be created for those who want to light up within the city limits of the small, seaside community. Residents would still be free to smoke in their homes and yards.

Pioneer Effort

Richard Roe, a former Del Mar mayor and erstwhile smoker turned anti-smoking activist, introduced the so-called Roe Health Initiative more than a year ago, saying he envisioned Del Mar as a pioneer in the anti-smoking effort.

The campaign was launched, Roe said, after he grew tired of breathing other people’s smoke while waiting for public transportation or sitting in public places.

Roe has expressed optimism about the measure’s chances at the polls, pointing to a post card survey he took early last year. About 60% of the 124 Del Mar residents he queried favored the plan to ban smoking in public places, both indoors and out.

City officials say it would cost about $100,000 a year to enforce the proposal, most of that going for legal fees and signs that would be posted in public areas warning against smoking. Most council members have come out against the measure.

Roe, however, contends that the no-smoking proposal will prove to be self-enforcing, noting that predictions that San Francisco’s no-smoking ordinance would be unenforceable proved to be wrong.

Among the chief opponents of the measure is Alijandra Mogilner, a former aide to former County Supervisor Patrick Boarman. She says Roe’s notion that smoking outdoors is a health hazard is absurd.