Laguna Businesses to Fight Tougher Ban on Smoking : Crackdown: The city’s campaign to curb puffing in restaurants would send diners elsewhere, cafe owners complain.

The city’s hotel and restaurant forces are gearing up to fight the City Council’s plan to ban smoking in restaurants, an anti-smoking law that would be the strictest in Orange County and one of the toughest in Southern California.

Business owners say a smoking ban would be another blow for merchants already struggling under what they say are high rents and expensive parking-meter charges of 25 cents per 15 minutes--not to mention a gloomy summer and a depressed economy.

“A lot of revenue is going to get lost because people are not going to come here,” said Claes Andersen, owner of Hotel Laguna. “After all, we are a restaurant and tourist town.”

Roberto Amici, who moved from Italy to Laguna Beach three years ago and now owns Studio Milano restaurant, called the council’s action “very close to being unconstitutional.”

“This is a way to kill us,” Amici said. “I don’t think we deserve from the city this slap in the face.”

Business owners were responding to the City Council’s 4-0 vote Tuesday to direct its staff to stiffen Laguna Beach’s current smoking ordinance, which requires restaurants to set aside 60% of their seating for nonsmokers. That ordinance is already the most restrictive in Orange County.

Under the proposed ban, smoking would still be allowed in outdoor eating areas and restaurant bars separated from dining areas.

Laguna Beach restaurant owners said they would not object to the law if surrounding communities were similarly restricted. But in Newport Beach, restaurants are required to reserve only 25% of their seating for nonsmokers, and in Dana Point, the percentage is only 20%. According to a League of California Cities spokeswoman, Bellflower is the only other Southern California city that prohibits smoking in restaurants.

“We’re going to lose business to restaurants in other towns, and we’ve already had a tough season,” said Bruce Willats, president of the Laguna Beach Hospitality Assn., which moved quickly Wednesday to oppose the measure. “We’re taking the position that this proposal is unfair and bad for business.”

On Wednesday, Elaine and Neil Waldow enjoyed their usual lunch--and a cigarette--at Cedar Creek Inn across the street from City Hall. If the smoking ban is enacted, they said they probably would dine out elsewhere.

“My first reaction is I would consider eating in Dana Point,” Elaine Waldow said. “We live in South Laguna, so it’s close and just as easy to go to Dana Point as to come into Laguna.”

Cedar Creek Inn is one of several city restaurants that might be the most affected by a change in the law since its bar runs alongside much of the eating area. Owner Susan Keedy said she will attend the council’s public hearing on the law to oppose it. A date for the hearing has not been set.

“I don’t like the idea of somebody telling me I have to do something in my business that I don’t want to do,” she said.

Stacey Van Hanswyk, general manager of Sorrento Grille, another restaurant with a bar bordering an eating area, said she has already received calls from customers who say they will avoid Laguna Beach if the smoking ban is passed.

But Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick and Councilwoman Lida Lenney, who jointly proposed the tougher law, say public health must come first.

“I’m just doing it because I think it’s essential,” Lenney said Wednesday. “I think this is so clearly a matter of public health and safety, which is a primary thing the council is charged with, so I think it’s OK for us to go ahead.”

Many business owners said they will be on hand for the public hearing, which must precede the council’s final approval of the new law.

Jim Shultz, manager of the White House, the oldest restaurant in Laguna Beach, said he thinks that a smoking ban is a “good idea overall” but that it could hurt some businesses. It would likely also be a blow for customers who work in offices with a no-smoking policy and who use restaurants for a smoke.

“They make up for the time they didn’t smoke in the morning,” he said. “They have four or five cigarettes during lunch. Those are the kind of people I do feel for. I hope we won’t lose their business.”

Meanwhile, in another smoking-related action, the Fullerton City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on restaurants and other businesses to consider banning smoking in their places in an attempt to reduce the risk of second-hand smoke.

But council members stopped short of pursuing an ordinance that would ban lighting up in public places. The resolution, passed on a 4-1 vote, instead makes a smoke-free environment a community goal.

Councilman A.B. (Buck) Catlin, who voted against the measure, said he was disappointed that other council members refused to spend money on a survey of the business community to determine whether they would support a smoking ordinance.

“This is definitely the trend in the United States,” Catlin said. “Fullerton is one of the few communities around that doesn’t approach this in some fashion. In a sense, we are behind the times.”

Fullerton Chamber of Commerce officials told council members that a citywide ordinance regulating smoking could hurt business and that many employers have created smoke-free environments on their own. Tom O’Neill, a representative of the chamber, added that restaurants could be hit the hardest because customers who wished to smoke could simply go to nearby cities.

Correspondent Ted Johnson contributed to this report