LAGUNA BEACH : Smoking Panel Lists Its Restaurant Goals

A committee formed when the City Council backed off a restaurant smoking ban last year has endorsed a list of goals intended to cut back smoking in city eateries over the next three years.

The panel, which is composed mostly of representatives from local hotels and restaurants, agreed to the goals last week at the group’s first meeting. Members will next seek approval for the proposals from their respective boards.

City law now requires that 60% of a restaurant’s dining area be set aside for nonsmokers. The proposals call for nonsmoking areas to be expanded to 70% in 1993 and to 80% in 1994. The committee also supported a ban on cigarette vending machines.

“It was a very productive meeting, a very good meeting, I thought,” said Lida Lenney, the City Council’s representative to the panel.

Last fall, the council considered a total restaurant smoking ban but backed down under pressure from local restaurateurs, who said they would lose customers to neighboring cities that have much looser smoking regulations.

The committee was formed to find a compromise.

Laguna Beach already has one of the strictest nonsmoking laws in the county. Bellflower is the only Southern California city that has barred all smoking in restaurants.

While Lenney said a complete ban still is the ultimate goal, the president of the Laguna Beach Hospitality Assn. said Wednesday that business owners will probably not endorse a ban unless restaurant smoking is outlawed statewide.