Beverly Hills Eases Strict Smoking Ordinance

Nearly two years after it passed one of the toughest smoking ordinances in the nation, the Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday heeded restaurateurs’ protests and adopted a substantially scaled-down law that exempts existing restaurants from strict ventilation requirements and allows smoking in 40% of dining areas.

Under the revised ordinance, which requires a second reading before becoming law, only restaurants that open after Jan. 1 must install the ventilation systems. New restaurants can avoid the systems if they install walls separating smoking and nonsmoking areas and if the sections have separate air sources.

The ordinance does not affect bars, lounges, private banquet rooms or restaurants in hotels.

The proposed law, which was unanimously passed Tuesday, represents a victory for restaurant owners who complained that the ventilation systems were expensive and cumbersome. The old law requiring the systems was passed in July, 1987, after restaurant owners protested a highly publicized ban on all smoking in restaurants with more than 50 seats. That law, which the council passed in April, 1987, was considered one of the toughest smoking ordinances in the nation.

Nonsmoking Space

Walt Bilofsky, president of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, said he is disappointed that existing restaurants won’t be required to install ventilation systems, but he added that he is pleased that the minimum space for nonsmoking sections was increased from 50% to 60% of dining areas.

“Obviously, a complete prohibition on smoking would have been the best thing for nonsmokers,” Bilofsky said, “but all the parties have approached the negotiations over this 60% separation in a constructive spirit. Of all the situations where cities and counties in California have enacted smoking laws, restaurants have been the most difficult because restaurants want to accommodate smoking customers. People like to smoke after dinner.”

Bilofsky said Beverly Hills is now typical of many California communities that set aside a minimum amount of space for nonsmokers in restaurants. He said Aspen, Colo., is the only city in the nation that he knows of that bans restaurant smoking outright.

Bob Spivak, president of the Beverly Hills Restaurant Assn., said the systems would have cost between $7,000 and $25,000 to install. The city issued ventilation standards in September, 1987, that would have required “air curtains” to keep smoke from entering nonsmoking sections in large restaurants that did not have walls separating smoking and nonsmoking areas. In addition, the old law required restaurants to submit detailed floor plans and installation plans for ventilation systems before allowing them to have smoking areas.

“We feel the 60-40 (separation) is very reasonable and very livable, and we’re very delighted to have the ventilation requirement for existing restaurants taken out of it,” Spivak said.

Unworkable Compromise

Spivak said the ventilation requirement for existing restaurants was a well-intended but unworkable compromise to the earlier outright ban on smoking.

“I think all of us will agree that a smoking ban in a small (city) surrounded by areas without a smoking ban was a disaster,” he said. “The ventilation plan they came up with was kind of a way of getting out of it (the ban).”

Approved ventilation systems were to have been completed and working by June 15, 1988, but none were installed because the restaurant association persuaded the City Council to grant a series of extensions.

“I think this is a very fair and equitable (ordinance) and it’s been a long time in coming, but I think it’s workable,” said Councilwoman Vicki Reynolds.

Reynolds and Mayor Robert Tanenbaum worked with representatives from the restaurant association, the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and nonsmoking advocates to draft the law.

RESTAURATEURS GET SOME BREATHING ROOM OLD LAW

Required air segregation, filtration or ventilation systems for restaurants seating more than 50.

Set aside a minimum of 50% of dining areas for nonsmokers.

Required “air curtains” in restaurants without walls separating smoking and nonsmoking sections.

Exempted bars, lounges, private banquet rooms and restaurants in hotels.

REVISED LAW

Requires ventilation and filtration systems in restaurants opened after Jan. 1, 1989. Existing restaurants exempt.

Sets aside a minimum of 60% of dining areas for nonsmokers.

Eliminates requirement for “air curtains” in restaurants without walls separating smoking and nonsmoking sections.

Exempts hotels, lounges, bars and private banquet rooms.