Skateboarding Prohibited in Business Areas : Safety: The City Council moves to protect shoppers and merchants. Roller skaters and in-line skaters are also banned.

La Mirada is putting the brakes on skateboarding and roller skating.

Responding to merchants’ complaints that skateboarders risk colliding with shoppers, interfere with parking lot traffic and dent cars, the City Council has banned the use of skateboards in commercial areas.

Although most of the complaints were about skateboarders, the law also applies to in-line skaters and roller skaters, who cause occasional problems, officials said.

Those who violate the new law, which takes effect at the end of the month, will face a $100 fine for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for subsequent offenses.

“It’s almost a miracle how some of these kids go by our doors without hitting anyone,” said Mac Ausbon, president of the city Chamber of Commerce. “You don’t want customers afraid to come into your place of business. The problem had to be addressed.”

No reports of skateboarders injuring pedestrians in the city have been filed with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Deputy Dave Kolinski, who is stationed at City Hall. Officials were uncertain how much damage has been caused by skateboarders or the amount businesses have spent on protective measures.

Ausbon, branch manager of Home Savings of America at the La Mirada Theater Center, said the bank has spent about $3,000 in three years on guardrails to keep skateboarders off its sidewalks and concrete planters. The bank also has replaced its front-door windows twice in 10 years because of damage from skateboards.

Under the new measure, which the City Council adopted April 27, skateboarding, roller blading and roller skating are banned in commercial and industrial areas where warning signs are posted in at least two entrances.

The measure extends a 1987 ordinance that prohibited skateboarding and bicycling on public property, including City Hall, where signs are posted.

Merchants, who say they could do little in the past to deter skateboarders, think the new measure will help.

“I don’t see why these people can’t do this in front of their own houses where they are not a liability to us,” said Gerald Roodzant, a dentist in the Home Depot Shopping Center. “Who knows how many dings they have put in parked cars because they lose control. . . . I’m hoping that will change now.”

Skateboarders say they are misunderstood.

“They say we harass shoppers, like we’re hurting them,” complained Whittier resident Mike Campbell, 16, who was skateboarding recently in La Mirada. “I don’t try to go out and hurt people. I wait for them to get out of the way.”

Campbell’s friend from La Mirada, Jimmie Ross, 15, said the new law will not deter skateboarders from the city’s shopping centers. “There’s nowhere else to skate. They should build a skate park.”

Bill Cook, owner of Spectrum Sports on La Mirada Boulevard, the city’s only skateboard store, has offered to build such a park and provide liability insurance if the city provides the land.