# Calabasas, CA smoking ban **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 18, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911 "2006-03-18T16:40:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/1 "2006-03-18T16:40:40Z")
Calabasas, CA has passed a smoking ban that would prohibit some people from smoking on their own property if their property is next to a ‘public area’. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined $500. One former smoker interviewed on CNN said she now finds smoking offensive, and that she’d ‘have to move’ if the ban had not been made. A lifelong non-smoker said she feels the ban is wrong. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/2 "2006-03-18T16:45:52Z")
What’s the definition of “public area” and “next to”? What sort of places will actually come under the ban? ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/3 "2006-03-18T16:53:57Z")
[Linkety link.](http://washtimes.com/upi/20060317-111644-9294r.htm) > [@](#): > > In Calabasas, smokers will not be able to light up on sidewalks, in parks, outdoor businesses, restaurant patios and common areas of apartment and townhouse complexes. Smoking will be allowed only in designated areas or at least 20 feet from a path. > In theory, people could even be barred from smoking on private balconies as long as someone with an adjacent balcony objects. > The ordinance was inspired by Margo Arnold, a 19-year-old college student. She told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that second-hand smoke gives her a headache and she was tired of **having to move in public parks** to avoid it. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/4 "2006-03-18T17:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=Tevildo] What’s the definition of “public area” and “next to”? What sort of places will actually come under the ban? [/QUOTE] [From here](http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2006/02/calabasas-adopts-broad-outdoor-smoking.html): > [@](#): > > The Calabasas (California) City Council gave final approval Wednesday to an [ordinance](http://www.cityofcalabasas.com/pdf/agendas/council/2006/021506/item2-O2006-217.pdf) (warning: PDF) that would ban smoking virtually everywhere outside in the city, including streets, sidewalks, and parking lots. Smoking is banned in all of these areas any time there is someone within 20 feet who is not themselves smoking or who has not specifically consented to the individual smoking. CNN obviously keeps their stories short, and I posted before I found the ordinance. Now that I’ve skimmed it, it does say that people can smoke on their own property. However Sec 8.12.050 says that there must be ‘reasonable distance’ (defined as 20 feet) between a smoker and an objecting non-smoker. So if I’m reading it correctly, a person may not stand on his own property within 20 feet of a sidewalk if there is an objecting person there. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/5 "2006-03-18T17:41:57Z")
Not a good piece of drafting - “outdoor area”, the critical term in the critical paragraph (8.12.040 (a) (4)) isn’t defined in the “definitions” section. I predict conflict over this term if any cases come to court. Apart from that - it’s certainly draconian, and it’s not the sort of law that I would vote for, but I wouldn’t (as a smoker) consider it unreasonable to live with. It’s common politeness not to smoke if there’s someone in the area who objects; I can’t say that I approve wholeheartedly of laws being necessary to enforce common politeness, but that’s human nature for you… ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calabasas-ca-smoking-ban/348911/6 "2006-03-18T18:30:16Z")
Does the ordinance say how the smoker should behave if he a non-smoker enters his his 20 foot radius? I’m picturing Monty Pythonesque encounters here. I think smokers should be courteous and attempt to limit the contact between their smoke and non-smokers, and moving 20 feet away from a non-smoker seems fine on that level. I’ve also seen plenty of non-smokers knowingly walk right through a designated smoking area, when there were plenty of alternate (and no longer or more troublesome) paths they could have chosen. I don’t really think the latter have any room to bitch, and that’s where I think this ban fails.