San Mateo Journal

Law stops smoking
By Dana Yates
Dana Yates/Daily Journal

Smoking will be banned at any multi-floor, multi-unit building that share common floors or ceilings in Belmont on Jan. 1, 2009.


Nearly a year ago this week, the Belmont City Council began taking steps to approve one of the country’s toughest smoking bans and now it’s counting down the three and a half months until it goes into effect.

On Nov. 8, 2007, the council officially passed the law prohibiting smoking in condominiums and apartments and their patio or yard areas. The wide-reaching law gave apartment owners and condominium complexes 14 months to come into compliance. The day to put the butts out in Belmont is Jan. 1, 2009.

The city is hosting a public meeting next month to help residents as well as property and business owners understand the new law and how to come under compliance.

Under the new law, smoking will be banned at any multi-floor, multi-unit building that share common floors or ceilings. The law goes into effect whether the properties are leased or privately owned. Property owners will be required to insert no-smoking provisions in new or renewed residential leases.

The California Apartment Association is providing an approved form to help property owners, according to the city.

Property owners may designate outdoor smoking areas if they are more than 20 feet away from doors or windows used by the public. Smoking in indoor common areas of multi-unit buildings was already prohibited by a former ordinance, according to the city.

The city made international news in 2006 when the council began talking about an all-out ban of smoking within its borders. After months of discussion, the council settled on what will become one of the nation’s strictest smoking laws. It has garnered little attention in the last year.

It went into effect 30 days after its November approval, prohibiting smoking in all workplaces, except in sole-proprietorship smoke shops. It will also ban smoking in all outdoor work places like outdoor cafes and restaurant patios.

The council allowed the 14-month window for apartment and condominium complexes to come under compliance.


Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.

Appalling!

What's truly appaling is how easily the "average" citizen buys into the propaganda.

Do the "majority" of people really believe that a litle wisp of smoke today will be the cause of some form of cancer 40 or 50 years from now!?

Worse, are there people out there that actually believe, and I mean as in FAITH BASED BELIEF that a little wisp of smoke will cause immediate death within 10, 20, or 30 minutes?

That is what's truly appaling.
The continuing dumbing down of America.
It is disgusting.