San Rafael officials approve tough new smoking rules

San Rafael officials approved the county's toughest anti-tobacco ordinance to date on Monday, banning smoking from all apartments and condominiums, in addition to parks, bus stops, restaurant patios and many other outdoor spaces. The measure is aimed at protecting people from secondhand smoke, officials said. "What we are really considering is the impact of others," Mayor Gary Phillips said Monday before voting with his four city council colleagues to approve the ordinance. The ordinance includes special restrictions for the downtown area, banning smoking from sidewalks and plazas except while smokers are "actively passing on the way to another destination."

The new rules are similar to those adopted by the city of Larkspur, the county Board of Supervisors and other Marin agencies. However, San Rafael is the first to ban smoking in all apartments and condos; others allow designation of some units for smoking. In San Rafael, landlords, condo boards, employers, public event organizers and the city manager could still designate some outdoor smoking areas, with restrictions. The areas would have to be 20 feet away from places where smoking is banned and 100 feet away from children's areas or recreation areas such as playgrounds and swimming pools.

The San Rafael ordinance spells out some indoor areas where smoking would still be allowed including single-family houses, vehicles, up to 20 percent of hotel rooms and tobacco shops that are not attached to other structures. Actors in theater productions may smoke onstage if "smoking is an integral part of the story and the use of a fake, prop, or special effect cannot reasonably convey the idea of smoking in an effective way to a reasonable member of the anticipated audience," according to the ordinance. Several members of the meeting spoke in favor of the ordinance at the city council's meeting Monday.

"I wish that this would happen all over the United States," said Jane Levinsohn, adding she hoped her hometown of Corte Madera would pass a similar ordinance. "People don't really don't know how much damage is done by secondhand smoke," said Michael Harr, a resident of the Highlands of Marin apartment complex in North San Rafael. "It's kind of a strange psychological denial that smokers have." San Rafael activist Jonathan Frieman said he opposed the ordinance because the designated smoking areas would be too close to areas where smoking is banned. He said smokers should have to stay farther away. "We should make them work to go kill themselves," he said. Enforcement of the San Rafael ordinance would be complaint-driven, officials said.

Landlords would be asked to incorporate the ban into their lease documents, and the county's Health and Human Services department will handle reports for first violations. "Hopefully there are not going to be that many second violations," said Bob Curry, who coordinates the department's tobacco program and consulted with San Rafael officials on the city's ordinance. "Based on past ordinances we're fairly confident that this is not going to be a major problem once we do the outreach and the education in the community."