LAGUNA HILLS : Smoking Ban Will Begin Next Month

Over objections of some restaurant owners, a tough ban on smoking in public buildings will go into effect next month under an ordinance unanimously approved by the City Council.

The law will prohibit smoking in virtually “all enclosed areas available to and customarily used by the general public.” After the council’s legally required second reading of the ordinance on Aug. 24, the ban will go into effect in 30 days.

At that time, no smoking will be allowed in stores, banks, elevators, restrooms, waiting rooms, meeting rooms, galleries, libraries, museums, theaters, hotel lobbies, Laundromats, shopping malls, beauty shops, barbershops, polling places and parking garages, among other places. It also bans smoking in enclosed workplaces with five employees or more and phases out in six months all tobacco vending machines, even in bars.

But after hearing objections from representatives of local chambers of commerce, a restaurant owner and hotel manager who said the ban would seriously hurt business at the city’s eating establishments, the council Tuesday agreed to soften a portion of the ban pertaining to restaurants.

The city’s eateries will now be allowed to phase in the ban, with half of their seating immediately dedicated for nonsmokers and 80% set aside in six months. A complete ban on smoking in restaurants would go into effect in one year.

At the urging of Mayor L. Allan Songstad, the council also agreed to grant restaurants variances from the ordinance if they can prove they have suffered financial hardship from it.

The council also agreed to allow smoking in hotel bars and bars adjoining restaurants if they are divided from other public areas and have separate ventilation systems.

A proposal from Councilman Randal J. Bressette to ban smoking in outdoor areas within 20 feet of building entrances and in places where people gather, such as concession stands and ATM machines, failed to gain support.

Songstad acknowledged that the council was weighing competing interests.

Craig Thomas, president of the Laguna Hills Chamber of Commerce, predicted the ban will end up sending restaurant customers to neighboring cities that do not have such strict measures in place.

“This is an anti-business ordinance,” Thomas said. “It’s a possibility that we will see people lose jobs and businesses go under.”

But council members said studies they have read have shown similar bans in other cities have not had detrimental effects on restaurants, and in some cases appeared to increase business.

Councilman R. Craig Scott, who led the effort to adopt a ban, was the only council member who opposed making exceptions for restaurants, even though he supported the final draft of the ordinance.