By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

June 01, 2010 --Santa Monica's smoking ban in multi-family residential complexes could soon be expenaded to include outdoor areas such as patios and balconies.

The City Council last week asked City staff to draft an ordinance that would to provide options on prohibiting smoking in all new units as well as incorporating the City’s smoking policy into a new Los Angeles County program involving low interest loans for retrofitting homes with environmentally friendly energy systems.

While the banning of smoking in patios and balconies appears to have unanimous council support, the concept of prohibiting it in future units does not. This will likely be an issue of debate at the meeting when City staff returns with a draft ordinance. Council members Gleam Davis and Kevin McKeown said they were concerned how this feature could affect low-income residents, who statistically are more likely to be smokers.

“My concern would be that by banning smoking in new construction, we would in effect be making it difficult for some families in Santa Monica to stay in Santa Monica because [they need] affordable housing and they might have a smoker in the family,” Davis said.

Affordable housing and rent control have been touchy issues since the smoking restriction movement began. When the council last year approved the prohibition on smoking in common areas, some people said they feared this would create an opportunity for landlords to remove longtime rent-controlled tenants. McKeown said City leaders are addressing this issue when they come up with smoking restriction policies.

“We have tried as a community to acknowledge the impact of second-hand smoke, move toward effective changes in our laws to protect people, and yet do that in an incremental and responsible way, aware that rent control in this community creates some special circumstances,” McKeown said.

The council heard from several public speakers, most of them in favor of the patio and balcony ban. Willow Evans said she has become a healthier person since the residents of her multifamily complex voted to ban incoming tenants from smoking. The complex is down to one smoker, and she says that person does it on the balcony.

“(The smoke) drifts across the courtyard … into my bedroom even with the windows closed,” she said. “And I have trouble breathing, and my clothes that are in the bedroom smell like smoke. And I get headaches.”

Pico Neighborhood activist Catherine Eldridge, a skeptic on residential smoking restrictions, said she wanted more information on the technical information being used to justify the laws. She said this ban should be a concern for medicinal marijuana smokers.

“Let’s just ban all smoke if we’re going to do that,” said Eldridge, who questioned how marijuana, fireplace or barbecue smoke could be separated from tobacco smoke when considering the prohibitions.

A topic that was not part of the discussion was the ban on smoking within residential units. Rent Control Board Commissioner Robert Kronovet has written a petition for this prohibition. He told The Lookout News on Monday that he and his supporters will soon begin seeking signatures.

The petition, he said, will be presented to the council in late October or November. If he has enough signatures, the council must either approve the ban or place the item on an election ballot.