La Cañada to look at stricter smoking ban

On Monday night, the La Cañada Flintridge City Council will consider a proposal that bans smoking around shopping areas, outdoor dining areas and nature trails.

A state law prohibits smoking in most enclosed public places, including places of employment, but the city can regulate smoking in other areas.

The city’s Youth Council is recommending that council members approve changes to the current ordinance, which would further limit the public outdoor areas where people can smoke in La Cañada. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, would not be included in the ban.

Under the proposal, smoking would be prohibited at or within 20 feet of outdoor dining areas, public parks and trails, all city-owned property, common areas of shopping centers and public events. Nearby cities such as Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena have enacted similar bans.

But smokers would still have places to congregate: the proposal calls for “smoking outposts” to be set up at shopping centers and public events.

Also on the agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting is a resolution establishing street sweeping parking restrictions on Hilldale Drive the first and second Friday of each month between 8 and 11 a.m. and a discussion to name the recently renovated Southern California Edison plot of land on Foothill Boulevard that connect to city trails.

It looks like the city will also finally adopt its protected tree ordinance, which would preserve deodar cedars in some neighborhoods, but remove California peppers and Chinese elms from city protection.

City Hall is located at 1327 Foothill Blvd. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

-- Tiffany Kelly, tiffany.kelly@latimes.com

Follow me on Google+ and on Twitter: @LATiffanyKelly.