Smokers living in apartments, condos and townhomes in Carlsbad will now have to think twice before lighting up inside their homes.
The beach city on Tuesday became the first in San Diego County to expressly ban smoking and vaping cannabis and nicotine products inside all local multi-family residential buildings.
While the city ordinance sparked some complaints about government intrusion into residents’ private lives, others applauded city leaders for prioritizing the health of nonsmokers who live in units that are inundated with secondhand smoke from their neighbors.
Proponents of the ban noted that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, with more than 480,000 deaths a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, according to federal health officials.
“This is more than just a nuisance,” resident Katrina Preece told City Council last year about the effects of secondhand smoke. “It’s a painful and alarming health hazard.”
Carlsbad officials began discussing an ordinance banning smoking inside multifamily properties with three or more units about a year ago.
For decades, smoking was allowed in places like restaurants, stores and even airplanes. But the habit has largely fallen out of fashion in American culture as more people became aware of the potential health effects, the cost of smoking continued to rise and many cities took steps to ban smoking in most public spaces.
At least 84 other California municipalities, including Beverly Hills, Culver City, Manhattan Beach and Pasadena, have banned smoking in some multi-family private residences, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation.
In addition to banning people from smoking inside private homes, Carlsbad's ordinance also prohibits smoking on balconies, porches, decks, patios and private common areas that are not designated as smoking areas. The law does not apply to single-family homes, including those with an attached dwelling unit.
Mayor Keith Blackburn said during a council meeting last August that the smoking ban would help property managers more easily enforce their smoke-free policies. Several complexes in Carlsbad already have no-smoking clauses in their leases.
“Many times managers don't want to get into a confrontation because it's just a policy or it's just in the lease and [the renter] “We know we’re not going to evict them for smoking,” Blackburn said. “So I looked at this and thought, at least for the administrators, we’re going to give them a tool.”
But others were concerned that the law would become an unnecessary burden on property owners.
The city, citing limited resources, said police and code enforcement officers will not enforce the law. Instead, landlords and other tenants will be able to take legal action against violators.
Councilwoman Melanie Burkholder, who cast the lone vote against the ban, said Tuesday that she does not believe local police should be in charge of telling residents whether they can smoke in their homes.
“It seems out of place,” he said during a meeting last year.
Will Creagan, president of Southwest Equity Partners, a San Diego County-based property management company, put it more bluntly in a letter to city staff this month: “So, you pass an ordinance and then property managers are told, ‘You have to enforce it.’ … Good luck. This is another clear case of government overreach.”
The law will come into force in January.
