SMFD approved smoking spots
By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer
SANTA MONICA PIER — Visitors come here to gaze out at the vast Pacific Ocean, but if they plan on smoking, they might feel a bit confined.
Smokers will be restricted to eight 5-feet-by-15-feet designated areas, according to a recent decision by elected officials.
Six months after the City Council banned smoking at local beaches but agreed to let visitors light up at designated areas along the pier, officials on Tuesday determined where those areas will be.
The areas will be identified by signs and painted markings within the next month. Signs will be posted throughout the pier to inform visitors that smoking is prohibited except in those spots.
“Really, up to this point, it’s been difficult to enforce (the ban) because there wasn’t a place for (the smokers) to go,” said Ben Franz-Knight, executive director the Pier Restoration Corp., which manages the pier. “Now, this allows us to enforce it.”
Designated areas include the west gazebo, the south rail, the fire lane to the rear of Pacific Park, the fire lane west of the Pacific Park restrooms, the south lower fishing deck, behind the west public restrooms, the west lower fishing deck and the west upper deck.
Council members voted 4-1-1 in favor of the designated areas, with Ken Genser casting the only vote against and Mike Feinstein abstaining. Councilman Herb Katz was not present. The City Council originally split 3-3 before removing an area some council members felt was too narrow to be a safe smoking zone.
Genser said he has been a long-time advocate of designated smoking areas on the pier, but disagreed with one of the proposed spaces.
“At first — when we couldn’t get the four votes — I said, ‘Gee, if we can’t get at least four votes, I think we should ask the staff to just start enforcing the ordinance’, meaning otherwise that there would be no smoking on the pier,” he said.
The locations were backed by pier officials. The Santa Monica Fire Department confirmed that the designated areas are away from the main public thoroughfare, situated to benefit from prevailing winds and can be fire proofed.
City Hall agreed to allow pier restaurants to designate smoking on a portion, or all, of their outdoor dining areas, with the belief that a ban would place restaurants at a competitive disadvantage to non-restricted restaurants.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 16, 2004. Read the original PDF.