No butts about it: Malibu aims to clean beaches smoke-free beaches from Dockweiler Beach north to the Los Angeles-Ventura County line.
By LAUREN BONIFACIO Special to the Daily Press
MALIBU — Following the lead of some of its neighboring cities, Malibu is expected to ban smoking on public beaches this month, helping to create a 40-mile stretch of smoke-free sand.
The Malibu City Council voted 4-1 in favor of the ban during its preliminary reading on Monday. If the ban receives final approval May 24 as expected, it would go into effect 30 days later.
A ban in Malibu, combined with similar measures approved by Santa Monica and Los Angeles over the past two months, would establish a continuous stretch of With an estimated 15 million people visiting Malibu beaches each year, the ban was a natural response to ordinances passed by other cities, said Malibu councilman Andy Stern.
“People in the newspaper were saying, ‘let’s go to Malibu and smoke now,’” Stern said. “I thought the three cities doing it would make a lot of sense.”
At the meeting Monday night, community members speaking in support of the smoking ban were unopposed by any dissenters.
Proposed by Malibu Mayor Sharon Barovsky, a smoker herself, the ban was considered with respect to environmental and health issues such as water quality, litter and secondhand smoke.
“We were ecstatic,” said Alan Reed, chair of the Surfrider Foundation’s Malibu chapter, the leading environmental group fighting for the ban. “We’ve eliminated the dangers of secondhand smoke and we’ve eliminated the number-one source of litter in all our beach cleanups.”
According to Stern, cigarette butts have been piling up in the city.
“People are essentially using the beach as their ash tray,” he said.
Along the Pacific Coast Highway, miles of beachside businesses in Malibu would see the proposed ban up close.
“I would, without question, be supportive,” said Paul Spooner, general manager at Duke’s, a Malibu restaurant that voluntarily banned smoking from its outdoor patios recently.
A frustrated Spooner laments that patrons forced to go out front of the restaurant and smoke “still throw a gazil-lion cigarette butts out in our parking lot, right next to the storm drain,” but feels the beach restriction would be a step in the right direction. He added that he does not expect a drop-off in business if the ban takes effect.
One of the council’s few concerns on Monday was how the ban over miles of city beaches would be enforced. That issue led one council member to vote against the ban, Stern said.
Stern, however, does not foresee any problems.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department would patrol the beaches and cite smokers, leaving lifeguards free to watch the water. With a special beach team already deployed by the sheriff each summer, Stern contends more officers would not be needed to enforce the ban.
Before Santa Monica approved its ban in March, inspiring neighboring cities to do the same, smoking had already been banned on beaches in two other California cities — San Clemente in Orange County and Solana Beach in San Diego County.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.